


Free Parenting

by JackieWepps



Series: Free Parenting [1]
Category: Free!
Genre: AU, Family, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-12 10:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 36
Words: 47,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5662747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackieWepps/pseuds/JackieWepps
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tachibana Makoto has 3 big problems<br/>1st four teenage kids where three of them are far from your usual teenage boy<br/>2nd a financial crisis at his work which is forcing him to move<br/>3rd the new apartment has no bathtub for Haruka</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Trouble

It was a nice summer day. The sun was shining from a clear blue sky and it was already pretty warm. You could hear the activity of all the bugs Mother Nature had to offer and the yells from kids playing outside. It was what would be considered a relaxing day at a smaller town. It was at least, to anyone other than the members of the Tachibana family. It was a Sunday so school was closed and so 34 years old Tachibana Makoto thought he could sleep in piece. However he was wrong as the sound of footsteps was heard in the hallway. Makoto sat up just before the door was torn open and a teen with maroon hair was seen behind it.

“Makoto!” The teen yelled. “Haru has taken up the bathtub and refuses to leave again!”

Makoto got out of bed at that point. When Rin was like that, he had no other option but try his best to make Haru listen to reason and get out of the bathtub before he disintegrated.

Needless to say this was far from the first time he had had to do this. “He’ll be out in a minute, Rin,” Makoto said before walking to the bathroom. He knocked on the door and entered. “Haru?”

A black-haired teen raised his head from the water in the bathtub to look at his foster father. His face had no expression on it that indicated he had heard the man, yet Makoto could tell he had.

“Haru, you can’t soak in the bathtub all day,” Makoto said as he approached the teen and reached out his hand. “Everyone needs a bath,” He smiled at Haru just as kindly as the tone he used in his voice when speaking to the teen. It was common.

Haruka still said nothing as he grabbed Makoto’s hand and let his foster father pull him out of the water, revealing that he was wearing his swimsuit. Makoto smiled again as Rin, who was looking over his shoulder, mumbled: “Typical Haru…”

Haruka glared at Rin and stepped out of the water. Then he went to get dressed and Rin soon had the bathroom to himself as he could take a bath.

Makoto only just managed to let a sigh escape glad that all problems were solved when a loud crash was heard from the kitchen downstairs and he rushed down to find out what was going on.

In the kitchen he found his oldest and youngest adoptive sons. 17 years old Rei was lying on the floor with a pot next to him and with 13 years old Nagisa on top of him. The younger was wearing a wide grin while the older had a frown on his face.

“What happened?” Makoto asked worried.

“I was just trying to reach the strawberry jam on the top shelf and then Rei-chan fell,” Nagisa said.

Rei pushed Nagisa off of him before sitting up. “Well, Nagisa tried to reach it by climbing unto my shoulders while I was reaching down for a pot…” He corrected the younger’s story.

“Nagisa, you should be more careful,” Makoto said as he reached up for the strawberry jam. “Are you okay Rei?” he looked at his oldest as he handed the jam to Nagisa.

“I’m fine…” Rei said as he fixed his glasses.

Haruka just then walked into the kitchen and Nagisa’s face lit up. “Haru-chan!” he called as he ran up to the slightly older teen and hugged him tightly.

Haruka didn’t respond to this. He didn’t even return Nagisa’s hug. “You’re at least old enough to drop the –chan,” Haruka just said.

This was completely ignored by the younger though and he just held on tighter to his older foster brother.

“So Haruka’s finally out of the bathtub I see?” Rei smiled as he picked up the pot.

Haruka didn’t comment on those words. He just sat down by the table while Makoto took the pot from Rei.

“I’ll make breakfast,” he said and then started preparing it.

“Haru-chan, will you make my breakfast?” Nagisa asked holding out the strawberry jam towards Haruka.

Haruka couldn’t deny the request due to Nagisa’s puppy-dog-eyes and took the strawberry jam before he started making the usual, unhealthy, sweet breakfast that Nagisa required.

Rin made it downstairs just in time before breakfast was ready and the little family had breakfast together.

Makoto was first to finish and as he did so, he looked around at his little family. He truly admired it. There was Rei as the oldest. He was 17 years old. He was a kind soul and he was smart too. He had an obsession with beauty though, that could make some of the things he did take a lot of time.

Then there were the twins Rin and Haruka. They were 15 years old. Although they were the only ones related to each other by blood, you wouldn’t believe that when you first saw them. Rin was a happy, dramatic boy who was really good with making friends and really loud at times, while Haruka was dark and silent, antisocial and didn’t show much emotion.

Nagisa was 13 years old, a happy and energetic boy who had nothing to cloud his mind. He was childish but also really smart. He knew how to get his way with almost everyone he met. In fact Makoto had never met anyone who Nagisa couldn’t have his way with.

Makoto himself was the 34 years old, way too kind, man who had taken all four of them in for the only reason that nobody else had wanted them. He kept up a full-time job while he also held the title as full-time single parent.

These were the five members of the Tachibana family living in Iwatobi.

Nagisa was the only one still eating when Makoto’s phone went off and he went to pick it up. The four teens were left in silence as Makoto went to the living room to answer his phone.

Shortly after he came back with an apologizing smile.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “But I’ve just been called out for work. Try not to destroy too much while I’m gone, okay?” he asked before he grabbed his bag and left the house.

* * *

The sun was low on the horizon when Makoto made it back. He opened the door with a bit difficulty due to the pizzas he was holding under his arm.

“You’re such a jerk, Haru!” Rin’s voice was heard loud and clear through the entire house as Makoto stepped inside.

“You’re an asshole,” Haruka’s answer was heard only a bit lower than Rin’s loud yell.

Makoto went to the kitchen where Nagisa and Rei were sitting. Rei had his trouble keeping Nagisa by the table where he was clearly supposed to be doing homework. Nagisa himself was more interested in running upstairs to find out what exactly was going on between his older brothers.

Makoto placed the pizzas on the kitchen table before looking at Rei. “Do you know what their argument’s about?” he asked.

Rei shook his head. “Nobody knows. I’m not even sure they do,” he answered.

Makoto just nodded before heading upstairs. Rin and Haruka were standing in the hallway. Both held up their fists and were clearly about to fight more physically.

“Rin! Haru!” Makoto yelled. “That’s enough!”

Both boys took their gaze from their opponent and looked at Makoto. They clearly hadn’t heard him coming, let alone coming home.

“Now go to your rooms and think of what went wrong and in half an hour I hope you’ve made up,” Makoto demanded.

The two silently separated and went to their different rooms while Makoto watched them carefully. Both of them had their eyes fixated on the floor as they entered their bedrooms and closed the door behind them.

Makoto was satisfied as he went back downstairs. He sat down on the other side of Nagisa and looked at the problem in the math book. “I’ll take over from here,” he said to Rei. “You got your own homework to do,”

Rei nodded. “Yes,” he said before he went to find his own homework and do them.

Makoto stayed behind and helped Nagisa with the problems.

Half an hour later Rin and Haruka came back downstairs. Both looked shamefully (as much as what was in character for them) as they sat down by the table.

“Now, what were you arguing about?” Makoto asked the two.

“None of us remember,” Rin said.

Makoto looked at Haruka who just nodded to confirm that Rin was right.

“Well, that’s good,” Makoto said. “Then I guess it’s time for dinner,” He handed out the pizzas for the four teenagers before he sat down with his own.

Makoto smiled as he looked at the faces of his four sons. He recalled that people had warned him about taking them in. He’d been told they were nothing but trouble. Maybe they were right. Even so, Makoto loved these four boys and had no regrets from adopting them.


	2. Moving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bad news reach the family

It was Monday afternoon, just around 5. Haruka was sitting outside the house by the door to the garden. He was drawing their cherry blossom tree. Although it had stopped blooming months ago Haruka drew it anyway.

Makoto was sitting in the living room, watching Haruka’s back. He had come home around half an hour ago to a house where Rei was helping Nagisa with his homework and Rin and Haruka had just parted ways after an argument about what food was better. Rin demanded that pizza was better while Haruka had stuck with mackerel.

Rei had told that Rin had gone for a run while Haruka had gone to do something else, which Makoto soon learned was drawing the cherry blossom tree.

Rin had returned about 15 minutes ago and had gone to take a bath, now Makoto heard his footsteps on the stairs as he went downstairs and walked into the living room. He made his way past Makoto without noticing him and went to sit next to Haruka.

The twins sat there in silence for a while with Makoto as a silent watcher on the sideline. Rin was of course the first to break the silence.

“You’re drawing the sakura,” he said. “It’s really good,”

Haruka made a small nod with his head. It was so small that Makoto could barely see it from his position.

Rin sat in silence then again, just looking from the cherry blossom tree to the drawing and back at the tree. He was most likely comparing the two. After a while Makoto decided to walk up and sit next to Haruka as well, make the twins aware of his presence.

“I’m glad to see the two of you know to make up on your own,” Makoto said, smiling at Rin and Haruka who both looked at him in surprise. None of them had noticed him. Both got over it quickly though.

“Yeah, we’ve gotten better at it,” Rin said. He turned back to look at the cherry blossom.

Makoto looked down at Haruka’s drawing. “It really is good, Haru,” he said as he studied it. It almost really did look like a real cherry blossom tree.

Haruka nodded, letting that being enough to show his gratitude.

They sat in silence for a while. A cool breeze came from the ocean making the warm day just a bit more comfortable. Makoto closed his eyes. He forgot the worries that had kept him down ever since he left the hospital earlier that afternoon. But now they made their way back into his mind. He would have to tell the boys sometime soon, but it couldn’t be now. Not yet.

“What’s wrong?” Haruka had turned his gaze from the nearly finished drawing, to Makoto’s face. He had noticed the expression of slight worry and thoughtfulness that had appeared.

“It’s nothing right now,” Makoto opened his eyes to meet Haruka’s. “I’ll tell it at dinner tonight,” he continued. Then it was set. He’d have to tell them about what was going to happen.

Thinking about dinner, that was something he’d have to get started on about now. It was already getting pretty late. Makoto stood up and went to the kitchen to start preparing their dinner for the night. Fried rice and mackerel. He knew he would earn some popularity in Haruka’s eyes from this. Mackerel was Haruka’s favorite food after all. However he wasn’t sure of how the others would feel about the dish planned for tonight.

About half an hour later they were all ready to eat and Makoto called on his family as they could have their dinner together and he could break the news to them.

Nagisa was in a good mood. He was talking about all his friends and a funny thing one of his classmates had done today. It was something about a frog. Nobody really paid attention, but Rei pretended to be interested in the story though.

“There was something you wanted to talk about,” Haruka said. His quiet voice brought everyone to silence and they looked at Makoto.

“Well…” Makoto started hesitantly. “You all know I’m keeping a full time job as a doctor in the local hospital, right?” he asked. To this all four nodded. “For a while we have had some financial trouble and now it has turned into a crisis where the hospital has to be closed,”

“What’s that going to mean?” Rei asked, looking shocked. He’d thought the economy in a hospital was stable and nothing could go wrong there.

“It means that some will be fired, others will be moved to different hospitals,” Makoto said.

“Which one are you?” Rin asked.

Makoto looked down at his plate. “I’m the latter,” he said. “I’ll be moved to a job where I have to work a lot more for a lot less than my current job,”

“Where?” Rei asked.

“Somewhere nearby?” Nagisa continued with his mouth full of rice.

“Don’t speak with your mouth full, Nagisa,” Rei informed. “I’ve told you before,”

“I’ve got a job in Tokyo,” Makoto said. “I’ll be working from 7 in the morning to 7 at night,”

“So… We have to move?” Rin asked worriedly.

Makoto just nodded. “I’ve already found an apartment there,” he said.

“When?” Haruka asked.

Makoto thought for a bit. “On Friday next week I think,” he said before checking his phone to see. “Yeah on Friday next week, just before your summer break starts,”

Everyone nodded. None of them really liked the idea of moving. They all enjoyed their lives here at Iwatobi but there was no other option it seemed. Makoto would have to move if he wanted to keep a job so far away. It would take them a while to get to Tokyo anyway. An entire day if they remembered correctly.

With those disturbing news in mind everyone left the table to think for themselves for a while. To believe that such a small thing as a financial crisis at a hospital could mean so much to someone’s private family life was almost unbelievable, yet here they were in the middle of it all, facing the fact of having to move away from the place where they’d all been living together for the past six years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, now I've learned how to do it without having to enter everywhere. So I might do as I had first decided (or maybe not, but publish a bit more than I had intended). Keep reading!


	3. Bathtub

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They move to their new home

It was Friday morning. But it wasn’t just any Friday morning. It was the morning of the day when the Tachibana family would move from Iwatobi to Tokyo. Everything was packed. All that was left would be to pack the sleeping bags that they’d used for the night and clean the bathroom.

Despite everything was so different, one way was the same as always. The way that Makoto was awakened this morning by Rin who yet again was complaining about Haruka taking up the bathroom.

“I really wanted a bath too…” Rin mumbled irritated.

“I know,” Makoto said. “You can shower in the new apartment,” he tried to comfort. “For now, let Haruka enjoy his bath. There’s no bathtub in the apartment,” Makoto informed.

Rin looked up and met Makoto’s eyes. “There isn’t? Does Haru know of this?” he asked.

Makoto thought. Had he told Haruka yet? To him it wasn’t such an important matter. “I haven’t,” he answered.

Rin nodded. “I see,” he answered simply before turning on his heel and leaving.

Makoto got up and awakened Rei and Nagisa and started packing the last they needed. Rei and Nagisa got dressed and started helping out too. So did Rin. When it was time to clean the bathroom, Makoto went to get Haruka out of the bathtub and while he cleaned the room, Haruka got dressed and shortly after they all were ready to leave.

Makoto had send the furniture to Tokyo the day before and set everything up in the apartment. Therefore they went to Tokyo by train. Another reason for this was that Makoto didn’t own a car.

They boarded the train without trouble at all, however when the train was about to leave the station, Nagisa ended up curling up in Rei’s lap while crying like a baby.

“There, there, Nagisa,” Rei said softly as he comfortingly stroked Nagisa’s back. “We’ll be just as happy in Tokyo as we’ve been here,”

The comfort sorta helped. Nagisa’s cries got a bit easier for a moment, until Rin started sobbing too. This caused Nagisa to turn to his crying ‘older brother’ and hug him instead and Rin hugged Nagisa too while they were both crying.

Haruka looked out the window with a distant look in his eyes, simply watching the landscape passing by. He tried his very best to ignore his crying embarrassing twin.

“Why’re you crying?” Makoto asked concerned.

“We’re leaving so many good memories behind,” Rin sniffed as he turned to Makoto.

“We all met here and have lived here for so long,” Nagisa wiped his eyes, though it didn’t help much since tears kept running down his childish looking face.

“Don’t be upset,” Makoto placed a hand on Nagisa’s shoulder while smiling at both him and Rin. “I’m sure we’ll create just as many good memories in Tokyo as we have in Iwatobi,” he said.

Slowly but surely Makoto managed to comfort Rin and Nagisa enough so that they won’t cry. From then on, the rest of the ride went fine. They changed trains once and while being in the other train they had lunch – riceballs that Makoto had made last night – and before they knew it, they were in Tokyo and on their way to their new home.

The little family were walking down a street with tall buildings on either side when Makoto finally stopped in front of a white building that was among one of the taller ones. He took out a key and used it to open the door to the street. He entered the house and the four adopted boys followed him as they made their way up the stairs to the 5th floor.

“Now, be aware that this is going to be much smaller than what we’re used to,” Makoto said. “So, I don’t want to hear too many complains because this can’t be helped. Also please try to be good to each other during the first week or so here. Bear in mind that this is new to all of us,” he instructed.

All four boys just nodded as Makoto turned and opened the door.

They all looked over Makoto’s shoulder as the door opened, revealing their new home until they moved out on their own. Before anyone knew it, Nagisa had taken off his shoes and were running around inside the place, checking every single room out he came across. The others followed in a much slower pace though they were just as curious as Nagisa.

“I’m surprised,” Rin said. “The furniture is already in place,” he looked at Makoto, “When’d you do this?” he asked.

“Yesterday when the things were brought here I had it organized,” Makoto answered while smiling.

“Beautiful!” Rei had his eyes stuck on the view from the window in the living room. It revealed the sunset over Tokyo and truth be told, it really was a beautiful sight.

“Report!” Nagisa called as he appeared in the living room where everyone else had ended up as well. “I went through the entire place but I only found three bedrooms. Is that correct Mako-chan?” Nagisa asked Makoto with a hint of disbelief in his voice.

“There are only three,” Makoto got a troubled look on his face. “You’ll have to share rooms from now on,” he informed. “Rin and Haru will take the room furthest down the hall, Rei and Nagisa will share the one in the middle and I’ll be taking the last room,” Makoto informed the four.

“You mean we’ll be sharing rooms?” Rin looked at Haruka and Haruka looked back at Rin as the former spoke. 

“That’s correct,” Makoto said. “I’m sorry. My only other option was for all four of you to share a room and I figured this would be for the better,”

To this nobody disagreed with Makoto. They were actually relieved he had found this to be the better solution.

“Furthermore,” Nagisa continued. “We’ve got one bathroom only and it has no ba-“

Haruka stood, cutting off Nagisa, and ran to the bathroom to check if it was right what he was about to say. He was so lightning fast that nobody managed to stop him. Everyone else looked at each other for a second and then just waited in silence for Haruka to return.

When Haruka finally did return he was wearing a dark expression on his face. The others didn’t dare to say a thing since they could all somehow relate to how Haruka felt. Even though it didn’t occur to them that Haruka loved soaking in the bathtub that much.

Rin finally took in a deep breath before walking up to Haruka and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Haru,” he said. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll both become members of the Swim Club at our new school, and if there is no Swim Club, we’ll start one,” Rin’s spirit was as cheerful as ever and Haruka couldn’t help but smile just a little bit.

“I’ll join too!” Nagisa called.

“Shouldn’t you be focusing more on studying?” Rei asked as he turned from the view from the window to look at Nagisa.

“But it’s boring and I love swimming!” Nagisa whined.

Rei smiled at this. “If you promise to focus on your studies then I don’t see a problem with it,” he said.

Nagisa ran up to Rei and hugged him tightly. “You’re the best, Rei-chan,” he exclaimed. To this, Rei could only smile.

“I don’t know about that…” Rei fixed his glasses to hide the slight blush that was creeping across his face.

“Now that that’s aside,” Makoto interrupted. “Since we just moved in, I’ve ordered pizza for the night. It should be here at any minute now,”

Just then the sound of the doorbell ringing was heard and Makoto got up to answer the door and get their pizzas.


	4. Settled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their first day in Tokyo

“Hey Haru, you asleep yet?” It was Rin’s hushed voice that was heard through the bedroom a little past midnight that same night.

Haruka turned his head to look at Rin. “What is it?” he asked in a voice just as hushed as Rin’s.

“I just wanted to apologize,” Haruka could hear Rin turn in his bed.

“What for?”

Rin hesitated. “I’ve known there won’t be a bathtub in here since this morning when Makoto told me. I should’ve told it to you. I know how much you love soaking in those and how much you need it. I could’ve let you know about this but I guess I didn’t,”

Haruka said nothing. He knew why Rin would keep quiet about it anyway. If Rin had told Haruka about the bathtub that won’t be here, it would’ve been near impossible for Makoto to get him out of the bathroom.

“That wasn’t what you wanted to say,” Haruka said.

Again Rin hesitated before answering. “No,” he said. “When are we starting school?” he asked.

“After summer break,” Came the answer. Haruka could feel the tiredness slowly closing in on him and hoped that Rin would get on topic soon.

“You nervous?” Rin asked.

“Not really,”

“…I am,”

Haruka didn’t know what to say to that. It wasn’t unusual for Rin to be just a bit nervous about things like these. He’d also been nervous before they transferred to Iwatobi elementary and moved in with Makoto, Nagisa and Rei. The thing was that Rin wasn’t usually so open about it.

“What can I do about it?” Haruka finally asked.

The room fell silent as Rin thought about his answer. “Nothing,” he said. “Sorry to bother you,” He turned his back to Haruka, “Goodnight Haru,”

Haruka turned his back to Rin as well. He didn’t say anything though. He just closed his eyes and tried to relax as much as he could before falling asleep only seconds after Rin did.

* * *

 

When Haruka awoke the following morning it took him a few seconds to realize what it was that had woken him up this early. It was only 6:30. What had awoken Haruka was the sound of the front door closing. He also knew who’d closed it. It was Makoto, as he left the apartment.

After lying in bed for a few more minutes, trying to catch some more sleep, Haruka decided he won’t get anywhere with his attempts and got out of bed. He went to the kitchen and looked around. His eyes quickly fixated on a piece of paper on the table. A note.

Haruka slowly picked up the note and started reading.

 

_Good morning boys_

_It turns out Sunday is my only day off so I’m sorry I can’t be here to make you breakfast. There isn’t much food in the house, but I hope you can make some breakfast anyway. I’ve put 2000 yen in Rei’s wallet as you can go grocery shopping later today. Buy so that we have enough for the next week. The store is just around the corner. Have a nice day, see you all tonight, take care._

_Makoto_

Haruka folded the note and went to find Rei’s wallet. He remembered that they passed a store five minutes before they got to this building. It won’t take long to go there and back. As far as Haruka remembered it would open at 7.

It didn’t take him long to find the 2000 yen and get going.

The shopping part went fine. The supermarket was big so it was easy to get lost and the idea scared Haruka just a little bit. Though it didn’t take long before he learned where everything was and managed to get anything they’d need for the next week while ensuring that he could still effort it with the money Makoto had given them.

Now it wasn’t like Haruka found the others irresponsible and incapable of doing this kind of thing, it was just that he thought it would be much quicker over with if he handled it himself. Which was actually the case.

He made it back home before 8 and started making breakfast for himself and his three brothers. He’d decided on fried rice. It was something he’d seen Makoto make so many times that he had no trouble doing it himself.

The scent from the rice went up in the air and down the hallway where the bedrooms were. This was also what awoke the other three.

“Who’s cooking?” Nagisa groaned as he made his way to the kitchen with Rei in toe. His round eyes got even more round when he saw Haruka standing by the cooker, frying rice. “Haru-chan?” he asked.

Haruka just eyed them for a second before turning back to the food. It was nearly done.

“What’s this scent?” Rin peaked into the kitchen as well.

“Rin-chan, did you know that Haru-chan could cook?” Nagisa asked.

“…No… I didn’t,” Rin said surprised. He could now too see Haruka standing by the cooker. “Hey Haru, what are you making?”

“Fried rice,” was the short respond.

“It smells good Haruka,” Rei said as he entered the kitchen as the first one of the other three. Rin and Nagisa followed close behind him and sat by the table. Rei picked up the note.

“I already went shopping,” Haruka said as he turned and saw Rei with the note in hand. He put the fried rice on four plates, making sure it was shared evenly before serving it for the others.

“You mean, you took the money from my wallet?” Rei asked slightly terrified.

Haruka only nodded to this.

“It’s illegal, don’t do it again Haruka!” Rei yelled at the younger boy.

Neither guilt nor regret was expressed on Haruka’s face from Rei’s words. He didn’t consider it stealing since he had used the money on what they were supposed to be used for and he had done it much quicker than the four of them could’ve done together. If they’d all gone out together it would’ve taken them at least three hours just to find everything they needed within the budget. Then they would also need to spend time when Nagisa got lost (which he would eventually) or when Rin saw the cover of that famous romantic movie he and Haruka had watched which made Rin cry like a baby.

Rei sighed and ate a bit of the fried rice. This however made him completely forget about Haruka ever being in his wallet.

“It’s really good!” he exclaimed.

“I love it Haru-chan!” Nagisa cheered.

“I didn’t know you could cook this well!” Rin smiled proudly.

Haruka didn’t know any of that either. It was his first time actually cooking. He’d made bread for Nagisa from time to time and helped Makoto out in the kitchen a bit too but that had mostly been things such as cutting vegetables or remove fish-bones. He hadn’t done anything other than that.

They ate in silence. They just enjoyed the food that Haruka had made for them and didn’t feel the need to speak. It won’t have looked too good either if they’d spoken with their mouth full of rice.

“I noticed that the place is kinda dusty,” Rei said before placing his chopsticks next to his finished plate. “And there are cobwebs in the corners too. We should clean this place before Makoto gets home,”

“You’re right,” Rin said. “And we’ve got all day too,”

“Let’s do it!” Nagisa cheered on before leaving the table. Haruka decided to stay behind and wash the dishes as the others could get started on the cleaning.

* * *

 When Makoto returned home that night he couldn’t believe what he came home to. He had expected that the place would be all messy, there would have been at least one fight between Rin and Haru and he would have to get started on cooking. However that was far from the case.

The place was so sparkly when Makoto entered that he had to check the number on the door to make sure he had walked into the right apartment before he continued on walking in. There was a nice scent of mackerel in the air and he could hear friendly conversation coming from the kitchen.

“I’m home!” he called before taking off his shoes and entering the kitchen to see Rin, Rei and Nagisa sitting around the table while Haruka was making mackerel.

“Just in time,” Rin said smiling. Haruka turned around and put the fish on the table.

“Welcome home,” Rei said.

“Mako-chan!” Nagisa jumped up and hugged Makoto tightly.

“Good to see you too, Nagisa,” Makoto returned the hug before looking at Haruka who just nodded. The boy was about to sit down by the table along with the others. “Looks like I made it to dinner,” Makoto said. “How have things been here?”

“Just fine,” Rei said. “We’ve cleaned up,”

“I can tell,” Makoto smiled. “It’s good to see,”

“Even Nagisa helped out,” Rin informed “and Haru and I haven’t had a single argument all day,”

“That’s really good,” Makoto turned to Nagisa “What’d you help out with?”

“I wiped dust off the family photos,” Nagisa said. “We sure have a lot,”

Makoto nodded. “We do,” He thought of all of them. His parents had made a point to take family photos each time a new member came to the family. One had been taken when they got married, then one where Makoto was newly born. After that, there was a photo with the parents and Makoto’s younger siblings Ren and Ran. They were both grownups now. Then there were one with Makoto, Rei and Nagisa when they were newly adopted and then one with Rin and Haruka too after they’d been adopted.

“I just got an idea,” Makoto said. “Why don’t we take another family photo since we’ve moved to a new place?”

The others nodded in approval. They would love to answer, but they had their mouths stuffed with mackerel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really screwed up! Previous chapter was supposed to have a name too. I just forgot to add it and now, I may sound really dumb and totally confused (but I am!) but I can't find out how to edit it and attach the title! I'm VERY VERY VERY SORRY!!! I'm also sorry that you have to read about my frustrations if you are reading the notes. I'm really sorry!
> 
> Jackie


	5. Local

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin, Haruka, Nagisa and Rei checks out the local area.

It was early Monday morning… or if you asked Nagisa it was early anyway. The house smelled like someone was burning the breakfast. Judging from the colorful language that Nagisa could hear through the wall it was most likely Rin.

Makoto had been home yesterday and had made all their meals then. Haruka had been the one cooking on Saturday and today it was Rin apparently.

“You’re burning the food Rin,” Nagisa heard Rei yell.

“Don’t you think I know that!” Rin snapped.

Nagisa sat up and hugged his stuffed penguin tightly. It wasn’t fun being around Rin when he was being like that. Where was Makoto when he was needed the most? Nagisa wondered. When Rin was like this only Makoto could be around him without having his head bitten off by Rin’s pointed teeth. Haruka and Rei would be anyway, but Rin would pick a fight with Haruka and Rei would find something better to do than being snapped at eventually.

The door then opened and Rei entered the bedroom that he and Nagisa shared.

“You’re already awake I see?” It wasn’t really a question but it still required an answer. Rei liked saying things in that way to Nagisa to see what he’d do.

“Yeah…” Nagisa hugged the penguin tighter. “What’s going on out there Rei-chan?” he asked as he looked up at the blue-haired.

“Rin is just in the process of burning our breakfast and Haruka is trying to take over and save our food,” Rei explained in a way that was meant to make Nagisa feel better about the situation.

It worked as usual. Nagisa looked up and smiled at Rei. He then let go of the penguin and hugged the older boy instead. None of them said a word as Rei wrapped his arms around the smaller boy as well. Rei had always thought of Nagisa as his younger brother and Nagisa had thought of Rei as his older brother in return. It had always been like that.

In truth none of them knew if they had siblings somewhere out there, and they didn’t really care. If they were to consider anyone family it would be those they lived with, but each other the most.

“Well,” Rei said, breaking the silence. “I think they’re done. We should get out there,”

Nagisa smiled. “Yeah, let’s go!” he cheered before leading the way to the kitchen. He’d already forgotten everything about Rin’s angry outbursts earlier.

To say that the breakfast Rin had made was ‘well done’ was an understatement. There wasn’t really much flavor to it either but neither Rei nor Nagisa commented on it in fear of what Rin’s reaction to it would be. Thankfully Rin brought it up on his own.

“I don’t know about you, but I think we should just let Haru cook from now on,” he said with a cheerful smile on his face.

“It’s not that bad…” Rei mumbled but a glare from Haruka made him want to swallow his words right away.

“That’s a great idea Rin-chan!” Nagisa cheered.

“Hold on! You don’t have to sound that happy!” Rin complained.

They finished their meal and as soon as it was done Haruka left to the bathroom to shower. There was no other way he could be around water anyways.

Nagisa sat still as he watched Rin and Rei wash the dishes. He felt hungry. He had disliked the food Rin made and it didn’t make him feel full at all. In reality all of them felt the same way. They just didn’t make it as obvious as Nagisa did. Their stomach didn’t even start growling like Nagisa’s did now.

“The sun’s out today,” Rei said as he looked through the window. “It would be a good day to go for a walk in the local area and get to know it a bit.

“We have all summer break,” Rin said as he put away the last plate. “Can’t it wait?”

“No, today’s a good day,” Rei insisted. “Who knows, we might even be able to find some kind of food on the way to the park if we’re lucky,”

“You’re never getting Haru out of the shower,” Rin tried everything to just stay home for as long as possible. He didn’t really feel like going out, into the too hot weather.

“We’re going to a park,” Nagisa said. “and in a park, there is usually a lake, and what can you do in a lake?”

Rei smirked. He’d been lost on ideas when it came to getting Haruka to tag along but Nagisa’s head was working well when it came to forcing people to do stuff, and Haruka was easy to read. When it involved water somehow, you could always count Haruka in, and if it didn’t involve water in a direct way, Nagisa would always figure out a way that could include the water.

Now Rin was lost for arguments and therefore 20 minutes later, Rei locked the door to the apartment and the four boys walked towards the park together. 

* * *

 

The park was more crowded than any of the boys had expected. There were little kids playing everywhere. Couples walking down paths while holding hands, elder people sitting on the benches, a man selling ice cream to everyone willing to pay for it, and the grass had disappeared under all the picnic blankets with families on them.

“This sure is crowded…” Rei mumbled while scanning the park for a second time for a spot free of people.

“Makes you miss the park at Iwatobi…” Rin agreed.

Nagisa moved closer to Rei while Haruka just fixated his gaze on the pound in the middle of the park.

“Bad idea Haru,” Rin said as he followed Haruka’s gaze. “The water over there isn’t deep enough for swimming. You’ve gotta save it for somewhere else,”

Haruka kept his face stoic but was pouting on the inside. It was the LAST time he was gonna let himself get dragged to the park because of some lake that wasn’t even there.

“Does anyone want ice cream?” Rei asked. “I’ll pay,”

“Strawberry for me!” Nagisa raised his hand while jumping slightly.

“No thanks,” Rin said. “I’ll just buy some fruit or something,” He looked to Haruka. “What about you?” he asked.

“Some water’s fine…” Haruka mumbled.

“There’s a small shop over there,” Rin pointed. “Haru and I will go there while you two buy ice cream,”

Rei handed them some money. “Buy some fruit for me too, and maybe a couple extra bottles of water would be good in this heat,”

Rin nodded. “We’ll do that,” he said before dragging Haruka along to the shop he’d seen. Rei followed Nagisa and bought him ice cream – the requested strawberry ice cream of course – and met up with the others outside the shop.

Deciding there was nothing to do in the area after walking around for about half an hour and listening to Nagisa’s complains from when he finished his ice cream, they walked home and left things like that.

Needless to say when Makoto came home and found out that Rei had spent his own money on his siblings, he was paid back in an instant, regretting that he had had to quit paying them allowance


	6. Responsibility

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This explains how Makoto met Nagisa and Rei. Nagisa is 5 years old, Rei is 8.

It was one of the more cold days of October about 9 years ago. Tachibana Makoto was waiting on the bus that were to take him to his education-place. Today was a special day actually. When Makoto finished school he would have to go to his part time job as a swim coach and teach some kids how to swim.

The bus stopped now and Makoto boarded it. Today the bus was full of people and Makoto couldn’t find a free spot until a blue-haired boy with glasses pulled the blonde boy sitting next to him, closer, leaving a free seat for Makoto who gladly took the opportunity.

“Thanks a lot,” Makoto smiled at the boy.

“It’s no trouble,” The boy said and to this the blonde whined.

“I was sleeping there, Rei-chan!”

The blue-haired said nothing, he just pulled out a red lollipop and handed it to the blonde boy, who soon lit up and stuffed the lollipop into his mouth with a satisfied expression on his face.

Makoto found himself to be amused by the pair. He had never met anyone like those to before and he was sure that he most likely wouldn’t meet anyone like them ever again. 

* * *

 

Makoto entered the swim club that afternoon. He found the leader and got his instructions. It was simple enough. He was to just teach a small class of kids how to swim and let that be it. He got a list of names of the kids he’d be teaching and looked it over. None really stood out to him.

Makoto went out and met his swim-class. There were seven kids in total. Four boys and three girls. One of the boys looked familiar to him, but he couldn’t figure out why that was at the moment. It was a blonde boy with round, magenta eyes. He was smaller than the others, and by far the most cheerful looking one of them.

Makoto called out the names of the kids and learned that the blonde boy’s name was Hazuki Nagisa. It still didn’t help him remember where he’d seen the boy before. He decided to push it aside and just teach his class.

It was afterwards that he remembered where he’d seen the boy before. He was talking to the parents of the kids in the class when a blue-haired boy with glasses entered the swim club and was greeted by a loud cry from the blonde boy.

“Rei-chan!” the blonde yelled as he ran up and hugged the older boy. Now Makoto remembered that he had met those two on the bus that same morning and he only remembered because of the blonde boy’s nickname for the blue-haired. Rei was a girl’s name wasn’t it? But so was the name Nagisa so it wasn’t too surprising when Makoto thought about it.

“Those two are really sweet, aren’t they?” a woman asked another.

“I’ve heard they’re both orphans,” the woman answered.

“I won’t mind adopting them,” the first woman said.

“Drop that idea,” a third interrupted the conversation. I tried to have the blue-haired over once and he just dragged the blonde one along,” she sighed. “That kid is more trouble than they are both worth,”

Makoto watched as Rei grabbed Nagisa’s hand and they walked out together. From what he could guess Rei was about eight years old and Nagisa couldn’t be a day older than five years old. It was kinda sad that they’d got such a bad reputation in such a young age.

“Where are they from?” Makoto asked.

“Iwatobi Adopting Center,” The third woman said.

Makoto nodded and thanked her. Shortly after then he left the club and walked home in deep thoughts. Maybe he should do some digging about that orphanage. And especially about those kids too.

* * *

 

There was swimming every day. Thankfully Makoto only had one class. He took his time watching Nagisa and Rei. It was every day after swimming that Rei would come to take Nagisa home. It was a sight that Makoto soon learned to adjust to. He hadn’t seen them on the bus since that first day.

“Hazuki,” Makoto called after the 10th swimming lesson. Nagisa stopped and turned to look at Makoto.

“What is it Coach Tachibana-chan?” he asked.

“Why is it always that other boy who picks you up?” Makoto asked. “Shouldn’t a grown up do it instead?”

Nagisa shook his head. “Rei-chan’s like a brother to me. He is more family than any grown-up could ever be,” the boy explained. “He’s always looking out for me,”

“For how long have you two known each other?” Makoto asked.

“I don’t know…” Nagisa got a thoughtful look on his face. “I can’t remember a time when Rei-chan and I weren’t around each other,”

Makoto nodded and let the boy go shower and change. He went out and was about to leave the swim club when he noticed Rei enter the building and Nagisa ran up to him as always.

“Rei-chan, for how long have we known each other?” Nagisa asked.

“Why do you suddenly want to know?” Rei asked.

“Coach Tachibana-chan asked,” Nagisa pointed at Makoto and Rei grabbed Nagisa’s pointing hand.

“It’s not nice to point at others like that!” Rei instructed the boy. Then he looked at Makoto. “Why do you want to know, Tachibana-chan-san?” he asked.

Makoto fought back a laughter before answering. “I was just curious,”

“I guess we were brought in by the same time, four years ago,” Rei said. “I just took responsibility for him and we’ve stuck together ever since,”

“That’s right!” Nagisa exclaimed even if he had no clue if it was or not.

Makoto smiled at the pair. He’d like to get to know them better. “Who do I have to ask to have the two of you over for dinner someday?” Makoto asked Rei.

“I don’t know,” Rei asked. “Someone from the staff?”

Makoto nodded. Then he let the boys go home.

 

The following Saturday he had Rei and Nagisa over for dinner and everything went well. From then on, he had them over for dinner twice a week until the beginning of December when he finally made up his mind and decided to adopt the both of them. He felt bad for both boys that nobody wanted them because Nagisa was a bit difficult to handle. In all honesty he didn’t think it was that bad. When you just got used to the unusual amount of energy the small boy seemed to be holding, he was actually fun to be around and Makoto sometimes found himself looking forward to the dinners with the two boys.

“Mako-chan!” Nagisa yelled as Makoto came home from work one late afternoon. He’d brought his childhood friend along with him.

“Mako-chan?” Kisumi asked. He looked at Makoto with questioning eyes. “Who is that kid anyway?”

Makoto smiled. “I adopted two kids recently,” he explained. Rei appeared in the door just then. “The blonde is Nagisa, and the one with the glasses is Rei,” Makoto said. “We got on first names a while ago,”

“I don’t get it,” Kisumi said. “My ex had them over once and she said that they were more trouble than they were worth,”

Makoto just smiled. “She’s not the first. Though I don’t mind such a small amount of trouble as these two are. It’s only natural for a pair like them,”


	7. Recognition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto reencounters a childhood friend.

Makoto was exhausted. It wasn’t even past 5 yet but it had been a long day. He had been busy ever since morning and still had a lot to do. It looked like he would have to work overtime today. The idea made him feel a bit upset. He wanted to spend as much time as possible with the boys.

Currently Makoto was taking a short break and resting his legs. He hadn’t been sitting down since lunch and that was a while ago now.

Makoto’s phone started ringing and he picked it up. “Tachibana Makoto,” he answered.

“Makoto, when will you be coming home?” It was Rin speaking.

“What’s wrong Rin?” Makoto asked.

“Haru plans on making mackerel again and someone has to stop him!” Rin complained loudly.

Makoto sighed. It wasn’t the first time Haruka had made mackerel three nights in a row but he couldn’t do anything about it at the moment.

“I’m sorry Rin,” Makoto said. “But I have to work overtime. Tell Haru that you can’t expect me home for dinner tonight,” He looked out the window as he said so, only wishing he could give the boy some better news, like saying that of course he would come home right away and stop the expensive habit Haruka had got.

“I see,” Rin sounded down. “Be sure to have something to eat then,” he said.

“Of course,” Makoto said. “Don’t worry about me,” he smiled and said goodbye to Rin before hanging up and getting back to his work. The break was over for now.

Makoto kept on working for a while longer. He was nearly done and just had to get something in the surgery-area of the hospital when someone called out to him.

“Makoto!” Makoto recognized the voice but it took him a bit of time to find out who was calling out to him. When the truth hid him, he found it hard to believe.

He turned around and met a pair of purple eyes. “Kisumi!” He answered surprised. “What are you doing here, I haven’t seen you since you got scouted?”

Kisumi walked up to Makoto and hugged him quickly. “My ex found out she was pregnant and I went with her for the abortion,” Kisumi answered. “What about you? Last time I checked you were working at Iwatobi right?”

“I was,” Makoto answered. “But the hospital got financial trouble and had to shut down. I was moved here at the beginning of this month,”

“In that case, welcome to Tokyo,” Kisumi smiled brightly.

“Thanks,” Makoto said.

“How are Rei and Nagisa doing?” Kisumi leaned back against the wall.

“They’re both doing just fine. Rei is in his second year of high school,” Makoto answered.

“Already?”

“Yeah,” Makoto nodded with a proud smile on his face. “Nagisa is in 8th grade and Rin and Haru…” He trailed off as he saw the confusion on the other’s face and then remembered that Kisumi got scouted only a year after he had adopted Nagisa and Rei and at least two years before he adopted Rin and Haruka.

“You adopted two more?” Kisumi asked.

“Yeah,” Makoto smiled.

“How do you even manage that? Isn’t it really troublesome?”

Makoto smiled. “Not really. All four of them are really nice and Rei is old enough to help out a lot. All of them are actually old enough to help out at home so somehow they save me from a few of my worries while also bringing me in a good mood no matter what,”

“I wish I could think like that,” Kisumi answered.

“What about you?” Makoto asked his childhood friend. “Your ex was having an abortion?”

Kisumi smiled. “Yeah. It was just an accident. None of us meant for her to get pregnant like that. There must’ve been a hole in the condom,”

“So you’re single again?” Makoto asked.

“For the 12th time I think…” Kisumi smirked.

“You should settle down,”

“With this life? Never,”

Makoto looked at his phone. It was already past 9. He was really overtime today. “I’ve got to go,” he said. “I’ll just worry them if I don’t come home before Nagisa has to go to bed,”

“We should hang out some time,” Kisumi said quickly. “I mean now that you’re living in Tokyo and all,”

Makoto smiled. “I haven’t changed my number, you just call me whenever,”

“Sure,” Kisumi turned half way around and raised his hand for a wave. Makoto did the same before hurrying up and finishing what he had to do. He didn’t like worrying his boys.

* * *

“What took you so long?!” Rin yelled as Makoto entered the apartment. “Nagisa has refused to go to bed because you weren’t home!”

Makoto dropped his bag and walked up to Rin, Rei and Haruka who were all sitting in the living room, watching some talk-show… or was it just what happened to be on the TV right now? None of them really seemed to care.

“Calm down Rin, Makoto must be tired,” Rei said before standing up from the couch. “You should rest, I’ll get Nagisa in bed,”

Makoto thanked Rei before sitting down and closing his eyes for just a bit. He sure was tired. Nobody said a word. Both Rin and Haruka could sense that Makoto didn’t really feel like talking at the moment.

Rei returned to the living room and stood in the doorway for a second. “Nagisa wants to say goodnight, Makoto,” he said.

Slowly – due to exhaustion – Makoto got up and walked to Nagisa’s and Rei’s room where the younger was already lying in bed and just waiting for him to come.

“You wanted to say goodnight?” Makoto asked. He went into the room and sat down by Nagisa’s bedside.

Nagisa’s round eyes fixated on him and he smiled. “What took you so long?” he asked. It was obvious to Makoto that Nagisa was tired because he was clearly fighting his heavy eyelids.

“I had to work overtime, and when I was nearly done I ran into Kisumi,” Makoto explained. So that was it, Nagisa hadn’t really wanted to say goodnight. All he wanted was to ask for what took Makoto so long. It was kinda sweet.

Nagisa thought for a second before his face lit up. “Kisumi’s here?” he asked excited.

“You remember him?” Makoto was surprised.

“He gave me the picture book about penguins for my 6th birthday!” Nagisa smiled at the memory. He still kept the book somewhere. Though he’d forgotten where he put it.

Makoto remembered it too. Kisumi had been at their place a lot and so, Nagisa decided to invite him for his own birthday party. That boy had some crazy ideas sometimes. About a month later Kisumi got scouted though and moved away.

“Mako-chan, could we have Kisumi over for dinner again sometime?” Nagisa begged.

Makoto smiled kindly at Nagisa. “Sure we can,” he said. He’d thought about it too. “Goodnight, Nagisa,” He stood up and went to the door.

“Goodnight, Mako-chan,” Nagisa said as Makoto exited the room and walked back to the living room.

“Why’d you keep saying Kiss me?” Rin asked Makoto as he returned.

Kiss me? Makoto looked confused at Rin before it occurred to him what the boy meant. He smiled then.

“I didn’t say ‘kiss me’. I said Kisumi,” Makoto said.

“Like Shigino Kisumi?” Rei asked. He looked up from a book he had picked up while Makoto was with Nagisa.

“Yeah, him,” Makoto said. “I happened to run into him at work today,”

Rei smiled. “How is he?”

“He’s good. The job as model seems to be going well for him,” Makoto said.

“May I ask who this Kisumi-guy is?” Rin asked frustrated.

Makoto turned to them. “He is my childhood friend. He got scouted as a model about two years before I got the two of you,” Makoto explained.

Rin nodded.

“It’s very likely we’ll have him over for dinner sometime,” Makoto said. “So it’s not like he’s going to stay unknown to you two,”

Rin and Haruka both nodded before exchanging looks. Somehow, none of them liked the idea of having a stranger over just like that, but what could they do about it? Makoto was the one to make the decisions here. They didn’t really have much of a saying in the matter. If Makoto wanted his childhood friend over, then they’d just have to deal with it.


	8. Neighbors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new friend appears right next door.

It was on the last Friday before school would start again. It was about night-time and Haruka was preparing to make dinner. Rei had requested some kind of fried vegetables and Haruka had agreed. However that had only been because Makoto told him to make something other than mackerel because it was really expensive. Haruka could only agree.

“You doing okay, Haru?” Rin entered the kitchen and leaned against the wall in a relaxed pose.

Haruka said nothing. He had no clue of what to say anyway. He just cut the vegetables and let that be it. Rei had found some kind of vegetable that Haruka had never seen before. Supposedly it was from Europe but that didn’t help Haruka much in how to prepare it.

Rin pushed off the wall and walked closer to Haruka who was holding said vegetable in his hand while watching it like it would somehow tell him how to prepare it.

“What is that?” Rin asked.

“Some kind of European vegetable,” Haruka turned it in his hand. There were a few more of those things.

“You don’t know what to do with it?” The smirk that appeared on Rin’s face as he said those words pissed off Haruka. Like he knew anything!

Haruka turned his back to Rin demonstratively and started pealing the vegetable. “I do,” He snapped and Rin’s smirk turned to a smile.

“That’s good I guess,” he said before he turned to walk out of the kitchen.

Just then a ring on the doorbell was heard and Rin changed his direction from the living room, to the door.  Rin was slightly nervous. They didn’t know anyone in the neighborhood and nobody had been at their door ever since the first night when Makoto had ordered pizza for them. Of course it could be this Shigino Kisumi, who Makoto spoke of some time ago, but Rin found that very unlikely.

He opened the door with a slight hesitation in his movements and looked outside. What he saw out there, made all nervousness disappear completely.

Outside was a boy with short brown hair. He looked to be about Rin’s own age actually, though he was taller than Rin. He seemed to be just as nervous as Rin had been but he too lit up when he noticed it was a boy his own age behind the door.

“Hello,” Rin smiled at the stranger.

“Hi, I’m Yamasaki Sousuke,” the boy said. “I was send over here to ask if you had any eggs. We need it for dinner but the store has closed,”

Rin thought for a bit. Did they or did they not have some eggs they could give to the Yamasaki family? He didn’t know. But Haruka did.

“Hold on just a sec,” Rin said. “I have to ask. How much do you need?”

Sousuke seemed to think about it. “Four eggs,” he said. “But three is fine too,”

Rin nodded. “Okay,” He then walked into the apartment and into the kitchen. “Haru do we have any eggs?”

“Why?” Haruka asked.

“Because the Yamasaki family are in need of four eggs,” Rin said.

“In the fridge,” Haruka just said as he started frying the vegetables.

Rin smiled. “Thanks Haru,” he said before grabbing four eggs and heading back to the front door. “Here you go, by the way I’m Matsuoka Rin,” Rin said.

“But the door says Tachibana right?” Sousuke asked as he received the eggs.

“We’re all adopted,” Rin said. “The surname Tachibana is just a formality. Makoto lets us keep our own surnames to lessen confusion for everyone,”

“I see,” Sousuke said. “We’re your next door neighbors, we live right over there,” he pointed to the door across from Rin’s.

“Funny. I haven’t seen you around,” Rin said. “We moved here at the beginning of July,”

“I’ve been on vacation with my family in the north all month,” Sousuke said.

The boys stood in silence for a bit. None of them wanted to break the conversation and go home but they didn’t know what exactly to say either.

“Do you know what school you’ll be going to?” Sousuke asked.

“9th grade Sakura Junior High,” Rin answered. “So will my twin,” he said.

“Great! That’s my grade too,” Sousuke said. “Then we’ll see a lot more to each other,”

Rin smiled. “That’s so great!” he said. “I look forward to going to school with you and get to know you better,”

“I do too,” Sousuke said before they heard someone coming from behind Rin.

“What’s going on?” Haruka asked.

“Haru, this is Yamasaki Sousuke, he’ll be in our class at school and is our next door neighbor,” Rin introduced. “Sousuke this is my twin Nanase Haruka,” he said.

Sousuke nodded. He wondered why Rin would call Haruka his twin when clearly they weren’t related, but he didn’t ask. There would be another time for that, won’t there? He then looked at Haruka, and Haruka looked back. As their eyes met, they knew, that they would never get along.

“What’s going on here?” Makoto came up the stairs and noticed Rin and Haruka in the doorway and Sousuke standing outside. “Who are you?” he asked Sousuke.

“I am Yamasaki Sousuke,” Sousuke said “I just came to lend some eggs,”

“I’m Tachibana Makoto,” Makoto said. “It’s nice to finally meet a member of the neighbor family,” he said.

“It is,” Sousuke agreed. “Anyway I should get home now, Bye,” he quickly went into his own apartment and Haruka returned to his cooking. Rin and Makoto entered the apartment.

“You’re home early today,” Rin said.

“I saved up some overtime,” Makoto smiled. “I figured it would be fine, besides I really wanted to spend some time with the four of you,” he put his bag on the floor and took off his shoes. Then he walked to the kitchen to greet Haruka before continuing into the living room where Rei and Nagisa were watching the Olympics.

Rin walked into the kitchen and started laying the table.

“What do you think of Yamasaki?” Haruka asked.

“Sousuke?” Rin looked up at Haruka for a second. “I like him. He seems like a really nice guy. What about you? Don’t you like him?” Rin asked.

“Not really,” Haruka said as he finished the vegetables.

“He’ll be in our class you know,” Rin informed.

Haruka shrugged. Rin had mentioned that earlier hadn’t he? Yeah he had already mentioned that when introducing Sousuke.

“I should get the others,” Rin said sensing the negative emotion coming from Haruka. He couldn’t understand why Haruka would feel so negatively about Sousuke though. But hopefully this would be long forgotten soon. Yeah it would. Haruka and Sousuke would be great friends. Rin was sure of that.


	9. Care

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This explains how Makoto met Rin and Haruka.

Since April six years ago Makoto had had a habit of taking some long walks form time to time when he needed some time to himself. His walks led him to many places but there was one road he liked in particular. It led right past the orphanage that Rei and Nagisa had come from. It had a playground where you could often see kids play around there. Today was no exception.

It was mid July and Rei and Nagisa had their summer break. Makoto had sent them off to spend a few days with his parents at some beach. They figured Makoto needed a break, though Makoto himself had denied that, his parents had insisted and even Ren and Ran had agreed to look after Rei and Nagisa for a while.

Makoto stopped by the playground to watch the kids play. A group of kids who were about nine years old were playing tag and running around with bright smiles on their faces. A boy with maroon hair seemed to be it. He ran towards Makoto, and this was when Makoto caught sight of the boy right in front of the fence. He was the one the maroon haired was running to.

The boy was looking out at the streets. There was a distant look in his water-blue eyes. His hair was black and the expression on his face was pretty stoic. Anyone else would consider it the perfect poker face.

“Hey Haru,” the maroon haired said. “Why don’t you come join us?” he smiled cheerfully. “Aren’t you lonely?”

The boy with the stoic face shrugged. “Not really,” he said.

The boy with maroon hair got a kinda sad look in his eyes, but his smile stayed on his face. “Just come over if you change your mind. I’m sure the others are fine with you joining, if you want,”

The boy didn’t react. He didn’t even turn to look when the maroon haired ran back to play tag with the others. There was something about that boy that peaked Makoto’s interest. He couldn’t put his finger on what that was though. So he decided to figure it out.

He approached the black haired and leaned against the other side of the fence. “You wanna go out of there, don’t you?” Makoto asked.

The boy said nothing, but Makoto could tell from the look on the boy’s face that he was right.

“What’s your name?” Makoto asked.

The boy looked at Makoto with narrowed eyes as if he was saying ‘why would I tell you?’

Makoto smiled. “Sorry,” he said. “I was just curious,” he then turned his back to the boy and went to continue his walk.

From that day forward Makoto would come by the orphanage almost every day on his walks, just to see if the boy was still standing there. Most times he was actually. He was standing on the same spot, his blue eyes looking to a place far away. Sometimes Makoto would try to start a conversation with him, but they usually ended up being pretty much one-sided.

One day Makoto ran into a woman he recognized. She was the exact same woman who had claimed that Nagisa and Rei were more trouble than they were worth. Makoto had stopped being a swim coach when he started his actual job, so he only saw his old class when he and Rei went to pick Nagisa up after his swimming lesson.

“Tachibana-san,” She smiled at Makoto when he walked by. “I was just talking about you,” she nodded to a woman that Makoto had never seen before. “This is Tachibana who taught my daughter how to swim, he also adopted that troublesome pair of boys I told you about,”

“Don’t you regret that?” the other woman asked Makoto.

“Not really. They’re both nice and helpful,” Makoto said.

“It doesn’t seem that way from what I’ve heard,” the woman mumbled. “They sound like trouble, just like that annoying pair of twins in there,” she pointed to the playground belonging to the orphanage.

“What annoying pair of twins?” Makoto asked.

“Matsuoka Rin and Nanase Haruka,” the first woman said. “You see Nanase-kun over there,” to Makoto’s surprise she pointed to the black-haired boy with the stoic face.

“I tried speaking to him,” Makoto said. “He doesn’t seem like trouble, in fact he’s pretty quiet if I have to say anything,”

“That’s what it looks like,” the second woman snorted. “And his brother is nice too, but when they are together they get into so many arguments that you barely manage to stop them before they start another,”

“Tachibana-san, don’t tell me that you’re considering adopting those two as well,” the first woman said.

“Of course not. I figure that Nagisa and Rei are enough for the time being,” Makoto answered with a smile. “Though I’d love to have them, I’m afraid I don’t have the time,”

“That’s-“ The woman was cut off when someone exited the door to the orphanage and ran up to Makoto and grabbed his hand.

“Don’t say that!” it was the maroon haired boy. “Won’t you please take us in?” Makoto looked into the boy’s red eyes. He remembered seeing him among the other kids playing tag, the first time he noticed Haruka.

“Why are you so desperate?” Makoto asked.

“Because!” The boy met Makoto’s eyes. “I’ve seen you talk to Haru, you’re the only one who seems to understand him. He’s not doing well here, he needs someone around who understands him better than I do, he barely tells me anything!” Tears started running down the boy’s face. Makoto figured this must be Matsuoka Rin, Haruka’s twin brother.

He understood what the boy meant and he suddenly felt sorry for the twins and he could sense so much. Haruka just needed someone to understand him, and even if they fought all the time, Rin would do anything for his twin to be happy. Now that was what Makoto would call caring, and it was the bond between the twins that convinced him.

“My house is big enough for two more…” Makoto said. “Room won’t be a problem,” he then led the way into the orphanage while the two women were left behind with expressions of disbelief on their faces.

An hour later everything was in order and Makoto helped the twins gather their things while listening to warnings from a staff member of the orphanage.

“You once adopted Hazuki-kun and Ryugasaki-kun. I tell you, those two are nothing against Nanase-kun and Matsuoka-kun’s arguments. They’ve even been into real fights,”

“I’ve heard that,” Makoto said. “But I’m sure they’ll learn to stop as they grow older, and they can’t be that bad. Besides, something about them just really makes me want to get to know them better,”

Yells were then heard from one of the small bedrooms in the orphanage.

“Why’d you even do that!” a voice yelled loudly.

“Because you need someone to understand!” It was Rin answering just a bit louder than the other voice.

“I never said that!” the first yelled in the same sound-level as before.

“You hardly ever say a word except when we’re fighting,”

“You’re always picking the fights!”

“Oh yeah, then who was it this time, Haru!”

Makoto sighed before entering the room. “Would you boys mind stopping this argument?” he asked. “Now you stop yelling and make up or I’m not gonna adopt you anyway. It’s not too late for me to back out,”

Rin and Haruka both looked up and met Makoto’s eyes. Makoto did his very best to hide the fact that he didn’t mean a word of what he said and that he would adopt the two, what so ever.

It worked. Rin apologized to Haruka and Haruka nodded, also apologizing in a lower voice.

Makoto smiled. He had managed to stop their argument for the time being and maybe it would last for some time until they were home, or even better, until the following day. He led the twins out of the orphanage as soon as they were done packing and took them home to Rei and Nagisa who were both waiting impatiently.


	10. School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin, Haruka, Rei and Nagisa all start school after the summer break, and more new friends await Rin and Haruka there.

It was early morning and for a change, the entire Tachibana family was able to have breakfast together on a Monday morning. They finished quickly and Haruka went to wash the dishes while Rei tried helping Nagisa with the tie that went along with the uniform. Rei himself and the twins had already gotten themselves completely dressed and were ready to go to school at any time.

“You boys should get going,” Makoto said as he grabbed his back and prepared to leave the house.

“My tie is too tight, Rei-chan,” Nagisa complained while trying to loosen it up a bit.

“It has to sit like that,” Rei answered. He was used to Nagisa’s complains. He had had to deal with the tie at Iwatobi middle as well.

Rin smiled at Haruka. “You’re still not nervous?” he asked.

“You are?” Haruka questioned while fixating his gaze on Rin.

Rin shrugged in response. “A little bit,”

Haruka said nothing to this. He didn’t know how to deal with it. There was actually a high possibility that he’d only make matters worse.

“We’re ready now,” Rei said. “You two are responsible for Nagisa until he is with his class,” That was the demand and the twins nodded.

Shortly after this statement, the four boys were off. They’d seen the school many times before while walking around in the local area. The elementary school was in one building and the middle school in another. The high school was at the opposite side of the road along with the library and other areas that the school could offer.

Rin, Haruka and Nagisa were gonna be at the middle school building. This was where they went in, while Rei crossed the road to the high school building.

There was a teacher by the entrance who was ready to lead them to the office right away, where they would be handed their schedules and get many more instructions. Then they were led to their classes.

When Rin and Haruka entered their classroom, they found the entire class staring at them like they were animals in a zoo.

“This is Nanase Haruka and Matsuoka Rin,” the teacher presented them. “Would you like to say a bit about yourselves?” She then asked.

Rin stood up. He knew Haruka would never say a word but he felt like it was needed.

“I am Matsuoka Rin, this is my twin brother Nanase Haruka. I know our names are a bit girly but we are both properly male. It’s nice to meet you,” he said politely like Makoto had taught them.

“Nice to meet you…” Haruka mumbled after receiving a look from both Rin and the teacher and having the entire class looking at him with eyes full of expectations.

Among the students Haruka recognized Yamasaki Sousuke, their next door neighbor. There was nobody else he could recall having seen before.

They were told to take the seats in the back and went there to sit.

* * *

At lunch break Sousuke came over and started speaking to Rin while Haruka just sat and looked out the window. There was a cherry blossom tree outside the window that reminded him a lot of the tree in Makotos garden back at Iwatobi.

“Haru,” Rin called causing Haruka to turn his head. Rin was standing in the middle of a group of Sousuke and another boy, and a girl. “Wanna have lunch with us?” he asked.

Haruka stood up and walked up to them. He let his actions speak for him.

The five of them walked to the roof and the two new ones presented themselves to Rin and Haruka. The boy was named Nitori Aiichiro, the girl presented herself as Yazaki Aki.

“I was wondering about something Matsuoka-kun,” Aki said. She was walking next to Haruka and looked at Rin who was walking ahead of them.

“What’s that?” Rin turned his head to look at her.

“How come you and Nanase-kun are twins but don’t share the same surname?” She asked in a wonder.

“I wonder too,” Aiichiro said. “It’s pretty weird,”

Sousuke looked from Rin to Haruka. “I don’t think they’re related. They don’t look alike,” he said.

“We are!” Rin almost yelled. “At least that’s what everyone told us while we grew up,”

“What about your family, what do they say?” Aki asked.

Rin said nothing for a while and Haruka decided to speak instead. “We’re orphans. We don’t have a biological family to tell us if it’s true or not,”

Aki got a strange look on her face before bowing to both Rin and Haruka. “I’m sorry,” she exclaimed. “I didn’t know,”

Rin smiled as he placed a hand on Aki’s shoulder. “Why are you apologizing?” he asked. “We haven’t told you so if you did know, don’t you think it would be kinda creepy?” Haruka wondered what that was even supposed to be. Was Rin trying to cheer her up or make her feel even worse?

The group sat up on the roof and Rin looked at their surroundings.

“What are you looking for, Rin?” Sousuke asked.

Rin turned his head to look at Sousuke. “Doesn’t the school have a pool?”

Sousuke took in a breath, prepared to answer but Aiichiro was ahead of him.

“The school hasn’t had a pool for at least ten years or so,” he said. “Rumors has it, the parents and students alike were complaining about the swimming classes and therefore the school shut them down and had the pool removed,” he said. “Swimming is something we do in our spare time,”

“So the school doesn’t have a swim club?” Rin asked in disbelief.

“The closest you get to that, is the swim club found at the local pool,” Sousuke pointed to a building with a roof of glass about a kilometer away or so. Rin could just barely make out the pool underneath the sunlight reflecting in the glass.

“Great,” Rin turned to Haruka. “Then we’ll just become members of that club,” he said.

“It’s not that easy…” Aki said as she too looked over at the building. “You need a membership and that’s expensive,” she said.

“But since we don’t have a bathtub we kinda need a pool,” Rin said. “Isn’t there a way…” He trailed off as his three new friends looked at him.

Aki was the first to pull herself together from the bathtub-pool-idea making sense. “Maybe if you ask coach Sasabe he can figure out something…” she said thoughtfully.

Rin smiled and wrapped an arm around Aki’s shoulders. “Thanks Yazaki-san,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to post 10 chapters pr day. So I will have 10 more up tomorrow. I hope you are enjoying the story so far.


	11. Membership

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How to become members of the local swim club.

After school Rin and Haruka followed their three new friends to the swimclub they’d seen from the roof at lunch. Aki, Aiichiro and Sousuke were talking happily and Rin joined in on the conversation very often. Haruka was the only one staying silent, and nobody really seemed to mind him much. He just followed the others around. It had been the same way at Iwatobi middle too.

They entered the swim club and were greeted by a man with blonde hair.

“Hello, I see you brought some friends with you today?” he smiled at Rin and Haruka.

“Yeah,” Aki said. “This is Nanase Haruka and Matsuoka Rin,” she introduced them to the man. “This is our swim coach, Sasabe,” she continued now looking at Rin and Haruka.

“Rin and Nanase would like to join the club,” Sousuke said.

“A membership?” Sasabe asked.

Rin shook his head. “No, I don’t think we can afford that,” he said in a saddened voice.

“Then there are only two options,” he said.

Just then a group of four younger teens entered. Two boys and two girls. Among the boys were Nagisa and Rin and Haruka both looked at him as he spoke to the other boy.

“Is it true you are that good at the backstroke, Momo-chan?” he asked.

Rin had to force back a laugh after hearing that nickname. It was so girly, he’d completely forgotten that his own name was girly as well.

“Rin-chan, Haru-chan!” Nagisa smiled cheerfully as he saw the two others. “You guys gonna go swim too?” he asked.

Rin shrugged. “Don’t know,” he mumbled.

“Coach Sasabe!” the other boy – Momo – yelled. “I’m bringing a guest in with me today,” he said.

“Alright,” Sasabe said before signaling for the youngsters to go ahead, and so the little group disappeared.

“You can either do as those guys just did and be invited as guests,” Sasabe said. “Though if you choose that, you will always be in need for someone else to enter along with you, and they have to have a membership,” he informed.

Rin and Haru looked at each other. If they chose this one, it would be really troublesome as much as Haruka would want to go into the water.

“What’s the other option?” Rin asked.

“I’m in need of someone to help clean out this place about once a week. If you take the job, I’ll allow you free access to the club. This will also be the only thing I pay you though,”

Rin thought. Working in exchange for a membership. He wouldn’t gain anything other than that, it won’t help out at home very much, but hopefully both he and Haruka could get their need for swimming under control.

“What do you say, Haru?” Rin asked.

Haruka shrugged. “Either way is fine,” he mumbled.

Rin should have figured that answer. As long as Haruka got to swim, practically everything was fine with him.

“Then I guess we’ll have to take the job and work for our access,” Rin said.

“Excellent,” Sasabe smiled. “You can work every Saturday then,” he said. “Come in at around three in the afternoon and then you just leave when you’re done,” he said. “There will be a few others to tell you what to do,”

“So, can they start swimming today?” Aiichiro asked.

“Not yet, Ai. They haven’t worked for it yet,”

Aki nodded. “Nanase-kun, You can enter as my guest for today,” she said with a smile on her face.

Haruka nodded. That was more than fine with him. As long as he got to enter it couldn’t be any better. Even if he barely knew Aki it didn’t matter. Rin would also state that he’d get to know her anyway. That was true if she was so much a part of the little group that Rin and Haruka had ended up joining.

“Then you’ll be my guest, Rin,” Sousuke said before leading the way to the changing rooms.

There weren’t many in the changing room. Only Nagisa and Momo, and then of course Rin, Haruka, Sousuke and Aiichiro.

“I bet there aren’t others than those two girls and Yazaki-san in the girls changing room,” Aiichiro commented and the others just nodded.

Haruka was first to finish and walked to the pool area without waiting on the other boys to follow. There still weren’t a lot of people, only a few swimming labs in the pool. The girls hadn’t even made it out yet.  Haruka jumped into the water, not bothering to wait for anyone and started swimming labs as well in his preferred swimming style: Free.

When he made the second turn he noticed someone standing by the poolside. With a quick look up while breathing he recognized Aki standing there in her swimsuit with a smile on her face. Someone then jumped in the next lane and tried to gain on Haruka. Though it didn’t go too well since Haruka was ahead and the other was just as fast as him. Truth be told, Haruka was a fast swimmer and the only one who had ever been able to keep up with him was Rin.

“Wow Momo-chan, you’re fast!” Nagisa’s loud voice was heard all the way through the room.

“Mikoshiba-kun has always been fast,” Hanamura Chigusa said.

“Personally, I think his older brother is better…” Matsuoka Gou commented. Both the girls were watching. It were the same girls that had accompanied Nagisa and Momotarou on their way in here.

“Why aren’t you impressed, Gou-san?” whined Mikoshiba Momotarou.

Gou sighed. She still wondered if the day would ever come when Momotarou would finally get it through his VERY thick skull that she WASN’T into him. Then again, if the day ever came when Momotarou gave up, Gou would just end up having his older brother hanging around instead.

Her hateful thoughts were interrupted when she took a look at the furthest end of the pool where two boys were rising from the water. She had never seen them before, but she knew, those hanging around them were Sousuke, Aiichiro and Aki from the 9th grade. Gou suddenly found herself captivated by the black-haired boy’s triceps’ and the others entire body. All those muscles to look at, and the fact that their bodies were still wet from the water, didn’t help to hide the fact that they were really good looking in Gou’s opinion.

“Who was first, Rin-chan?” Nagisa called out to one of the two unknown to Gou.

The red-haired boy looked at Nagisa with an irritated expression on his face that could only be interpreted one way. He’d lost. The black-haired didn’t turn his head. He didn’t even seem to care about any of that.

“Do you know them, Nagisa-kun?” She asked.

“Who? Rin-chan and Haru-chan?” Nagisa asked. “They’re my brothers,”

Gou nodded. The first thing Nagisa had said when introducing himself was that he was an orphan and had three older brothers who weren’t really his brothers. He just saw them that way.

“So those are two of them,” Chigusa smiled.

“They’re really good swimmers,” Gou said.

“I know,” Nagisa looked at the two boys also wearing a smile on his face. “I hope to become as fast as them someday, but I’ve still got a long way to go,”

Gou smiled. She didn’t know how it felt to have such skilled older siblings as Nagisa had, but she could imagine it wasn’t always that easy. But there was no doubt in her mind that Nagisa was skilled as well. Maybe someday he would really be as fast as his brothers in the water.


	12. Friends

“So does the school have a pool?” Makoto asked interested while the family had dinner that same night.

“No,” Rin answered. “But there is this swim club nearby,” he said.

“I know of that,” Makoto said. “But I’ve also heard it’s relatively expensive…” he trailed off before looking at all his sons. “Do you boys want a membership?” he asked.

“Could we effort it?” Rei asked, the chopsticks hanging half way between his plate and his mouth. As far as he was concerned, their economy couldn’t handle four memberships of a swim club, let alone one.

“I’d find a way,” Makoto said.

“There’s no need,” Haruka interrupted their conversation.

Makoto looked at Haruka in surprise. If there was a chance of getting in the water, Haruka would take it no matter, at least that was the case as far as Makoto knew, and he had been able to read Haruka ever since they met, six years ago.

“He’s right,” Rin said, also requiring Makoto’s attention now. “Haru and I made an agreement with the coach down there. If we just clean up there every Saturday, we’ll get a membership in return,”

“I get in with Momo-chan,” Nagisa declared. “And if he’s not there then Gou-chan or Hana-chan can go in with me,” he continued happily.

“Momo-chan?...” Rei trailed off.

“Yeah,” Nagisa smiled.

“I’m glad to hear you made some friends, Nagisa,” Makoto smiled at the youngest. “What about the rest of you?” he looked at Rei, Rin and Haruka.

“Well, I guess I’m making some friends,” Rei said.

“That’s so great Rei-chan!” Nagisa spoke with his mouth full and the chopsticks hanging out.

“Nagisa, I told you how to eat properly!” Rei exclaimed loudly.

Nagisa swallowed the food and removed the chopsticks. “Sorry Rei-chan… I try to remember,” Nagisa was suddenly ten times quieter than before.

“What about the two of you?” Makoto looked from Rin to Haruka and back.

“We’re hanging out with Sousuke and two of his friends, Nitori Aiichiro and Yazaki Aki,” Rin said before finishing his plate.

“Both you and Haru?” Makoto asked concerned.

“I think Haru is a bit more friends with Yazaki-san and Nitori-kun than with Sousuke,” Rin said. “Though I hope it’ll change soon,”

Makoto nodded as he finished as well. He hoped so too. Haruka needed friends. He had never really been that popular with anyone. It had been the same both at the orphanage and the school belonging to it, as well as when he became a member of Makoto’s family and transferred school along with Rin. Makoto got the feeling that people only spoke to Haruka, either because of Rin, or because they were polite.

The five of them sat in silence for a while until Makoto decided to break it again when everyone had finished.

“Rin, you said that you and Haru have to work on Saturday,” Makoto half asked, half stated.

“What about it?” Rin stood up and went to the sink to wash his dish.

“How long do you think it’ll take?” Makoto asked.

“Don’t know…” Rin shrugged. “We don’t know how many will be there…”

“About two to three hours,” Haruka suggested as he followed his twin with his own dish and watched Rin clean his own dish before doing the same to his own.

“Why?” Nagisa asked. “What’s gonna happen on Saturday?” Nagisa asked curiously.

“I ran into Kisumi again today and we’ve agreed that he’ll come here for dinner on Saturday night at 6:30,” Makoto answered.

Rin and Haruka exchanged looks before looking at Makoto at the same time.

“But aren’t you off at seven?” Rei asked as he stood up to wash his dishes as well.

“I’ve worked so much overtime lately that I can effort to leave an hour early,” Makoto answered.

“Yay! Kisu-chan’s coming!” Nagisa cheered.

Rei smiled. Both he and Nagisa clearly looked forward to see Kisumi again. However Rin and Haruka weren’t too pleased with the idea. None of them knew why though.

Rin and Haruka left to their bedroom early that night, so did Nagisa and Rei. Especially Nagisa was tired. He had used up all his energy and reached his limit for a change, so much that he had accidentally fallen asleep on Rei’s lap during a quiz program and Rei had to wake him up and help him get to bed like he was ten years younger.

Rin and Haruka were tired too. They’d both completely forgotten how exhausting it could be to start at a new school midyear.

“Hey, Haru?” Rin whispered in the dark room as they listened to Makoto prepare to go to bed as well.

Haruka turned his head towards Rin, letting that be answer enough for the time being.

“What do you say we put this Kisumi-guy to the test and have ourselves some fun on Saturday?” Rin asked.

“What do you mean?” Haruka asked.

Rin thought for a bit before a smirk appeared on his face which Haruka couldn’t see through the darkness. “Couldn’t you cook something really weird up and screw it up on purpose?” Rin suggested.

Haruka’s eyes narrowed slightly. “I’m not gonna do that. We would get Makoto in trouble,”

Rin sighed. Despite Haruka’s protests against being adopted by anyone and certainly not Makoto, his respect for the man had grown a lot over the years and so it came to the point when Haruka couldn’t do anything that would put Makoto in any kind of trouble.

“You’re right,” Rin said. “That was a bad idea…” he looked to the ceiling as he started thinking creatively. The problem was that Rin wasn’t the most creative in the family. Sure, he had his moments, but this wasn’t one of them.

“Then what?” Haruka asked. Clearly he expected Rin to come up with something.

“Patience Haru!” Rin exclaimed before he remembered that Makoto was still awake and covered his mouth with one hand. He cursed himself for forgetting that they were supposed to sleep and not think of ways to ‘test’ Makoto’s childhood friend.

They were silent for a while longer, still thinking of what to do. Haruka was the first to break the silence. “Why did we get so unpopular at the orphanage anyways?” he asked.

Rin thought for a bit before the smirk reappeared on his face. “Nanase Haruka, you’re a genius,” he whispered. “We’ll make a staged argument!” He thought for a bit. “But we’ll need more,” he said.

“I’ve done my part,” Haruka turned his back to Rin, giving the clear signal that they were done talking for the night.

Rin nodded to himself, admitting that he was sleepy too. Then he also turned his back to Haruka and tried to sleep while figuring out more ideas of what they could do on Saturday night.


	13. Guest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin and Haruka start their job and then go home to prepare for Kisumi's visit.

It was on Friday during the lunch break. Aiichiro and Aki had decided to show all of them the flowers in the botanic club room. Aki was a member of that club, so thanks to her, they could all enter without trouble.

“It’s amazing,” Rin said as they entered the room. “Do you have any flowers of your own?” he asked.

“The camellias over there,” Aki pointed with a proud smile on her face.

She also really had something to be proud of. The camellias were doing well. They weren’t blooming currently because it was out of their season but it was easy to tell that once their time come, they would bloom beautifully.

“You’re really good with flowers, Yazaki-san,” said Aiichiro.

“I’m not as good as some of the others…” Aki mumbled. She looked around and noticed that Haruka seemed a bit lonely. She smiled. “Nanase-kun, look here,” she showed Haruka some flowers and started explaining to him about them, claiming that they reminded her of him.

Sousuke turned to Rin. “Hey Rin,” he said. “I’m gonna go swim with elite swimmers tomorrow around noon and I was wondering if you’d like to come along, we could go have something to eat later, since it’ll be late,”

Rin thought for a bit. He’d love to say yes. It was a great opportunity to improve his skills and then maybe he could have the chance of beating Haruka in a race someday. However, tomorrow was also their first day working at the swim club, and their membership depended on it. He had to work, plus, Makoto’s childhood friend would be at home and he got just a few plans up his sleeve that he’d like to try out.

“Tomorrow is no good,” Rin said as he looked out the window. “I’m all booked, maybe some other time,”

Sousuke nodded understandingly. “Okay,” he said.

Aki turned around. She was done explaining to Haruka whatever she had started talking about now and led the way outside again.

* * *

 

The following day around three in the afternoon, Rin and Haruka stood outside the swim club, waiting for permission to enter. It felt like they had to, since they came alone for the very first time here. Sousuke and the others had been with them all week, however the club was closed on Saturdays unless an event was happening.

“Do you think he’ll show up?” Rin asked as he eyed Haruka.

Haruka didn’t know, and didn’t answer. There was no point.

Just then Sasabe turned the corner and waved at the boys. “I’m glad to see you made it,” he said. He then instructed them on what to do and allowed them to enter.

“Thanks,” Rin said as he led the way into the pool area.

“Oh yeah, I forgot the most important rule,” Sasabe called after them. “No swimming in the pool on Saturdays,”

“We’ll keep that in mind!” Rin called back.

Haruka looked down. He felt slightly upset. He had only pulled on his swimsuit on instead of underwear because he hoped to be able to swim just a little bit today, so much for the trouble…

Both boys cleaned, gathered garbage and cleaned some more everywhere they could. After speaking to another cleaning worker they got the instructions to take the boys changing room, and have that cleaned up.

The boys entered and agreed on sharing the amount of work evenly between them. It also went fine, if it weren’t for the fact that Rin was done a lot faster than Haruka for the one reason that Haruka was much better at cleaning things up properly. He ended up also cleaning Rin’s part of the changing room while instructing him in how to do better.

“You really are good at anything you do…” Rin said as Haruka stood up after finishing Rin’s part of the changing room.

“Not really,” was the respond.

If it had been anyone else saying those words, Rin would have yelled at them to make them learn how to accept a compliment, but because it was Haruka, and ‘not really’ was just as good as a ‘thank you’ from anyone else, he didn’t bother.

“Should we head home?” Rin asked.

Haruka nodded and followed Rin outside. They said goodbye to Sasabe – or rather, Rin did – before they left.

* * *

 

The walk home was silent. Rin was a bit too exhausted to talk for the time being and Haruka just didn’t care about the silence. To him it didn’t matter if someone spoke or were silent as long as they didn’t expect for him to say too much.

When they entered the apartment, Rei was throwing a fit over Nagisa, because the younger was making a mess of the chocolate brownies he attempted to bake, in the kitchen that Rei had just cleaned up about half an hour ago.

“I know you just turned 14, Nagisa, but won’t you at least TRY to act your age?” Rei practically yelled as the twins entered the kitchen.

Rin and Haruka made a quick exchange of looks before Rin went and pushed the angry and annoyed Rei out of the kitchen while Haruka took over with the baking. Nagisa watched in amazement, while doing his best not to get in Haruka’s way. The only one he would ever really cause trouble for, was Rei after all.

While the brownies were baking, Haruka got started on the rest of the dinner. It was all something that Makoto had requested him to make. Most likely that was because it was something his childhood friend liked.

Somewhere along the line Rei came back out and cleaned up the kitchen from Nagisa’s mess. Haruka was amazed at how much responsibility Rei took over the youngest. He would never do it himself though.

At around 6:30 the door opened and two people came in, speaking happily to each other. One of them was Makoto. Haruka could recognize his voice almost anywhere by now. The other was most likely his friend, Kisumi.

“Kisu-chan!” Nagisa cried out of joy before he went and most likely hugged the life out of the stranger in the hallway. Haruka couldn’t check. The nearly done food required all his attention.

“You sure have grown, Nagisa,” said the stranger as Rei went to say hello as well. “And you two, Rei, I can’t believe it has been so long,” the stranger continued.

Rin entered the kitchen and started laying the table for six people.

“Mako-chan, where are those two new ones?” asked Kisumi.

“Rin, Haru,” Makoto called. “Come out say hello,”

“We’re busy,” Rin said. “I’m afraid if Haru leaves the food now, it’ll burn,”

“It’s alright, Mako-chan,” Kisumi said. “I’ll just come out there,” he peaked his head into the kitchen and smiled at the boys in there. “Hi, I’m Shigino Kisumi,” he said. “I’m Makoto’s childhood friend,” he continued.

“Matsuoka Rin,” said Rin. “That’s my twin, Nanase Haruka,” he presented.  “It’s nice to meet you,” he lied.

Haruka turned for a brief second and nodded at Kisumi. “Nice to meet you…” he mumbled before turning back to the food again, giving it his full attention.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Kisumi smiled at them both before exiting the kitchen to go talk to Makoto, Nagisa and Rei, and catch up with them.


	14. Kisu-mi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is how the rest of Kisumi's first visit plays out, how a joke takes a turn and leads to a fight.

Five minutes later, Haruka was finally done and Rin went to the living room where the other four were sitting and asked them to come have dinner.

It was a meal of three dishes. This had also been a request from Makoto. It all seemed to be for Kisumi’s sake because his purple eyes got all wide and sparkly with joy.

“So how’d you find these two boys?” Kisumi asked.

Makoto looked thoughtful for a moment. “I guess Haru just caught my eye one day and I tried to make contact with him, then I ended up speaking to someone who apparently had bad experiences with Rin and Haru and then Rin came and claimed that I should adopt them, which I did,” Makoto said.

Kisumi looked at both Rin and Haruka, but fixated his gaze at Rin. “So, Rin asked you to adopt them?” he wondered. “Why’d you accept if you’d already got Rei and Nagisa?”

Again Makoto had to think before giving his answer. “I guess… it was because I seemed to understand Haru…” he thought.

“Why is that important, it shouldn’t be too complicated to understand a kid,”

Makoto met Kisumi’s eyes. “It’s not really that simple, Kisumi, Haruka is something special, he isn’t like your average child, and that in a whole different way than Nagisa and Rei,” more the former than the latter.

Rin leaned closer to Haruka and whispered something in his ear with a wide smirk on his face, showing all the pointed teeth.

“Kiss me,”

Haruka turned his head to meet Rin’s eyes and Rin just kept on grinning. Haruka was confused.

“How is your model job going so far,” Makoto asked.

“Well, I’m one of the most popular models at the moment. It isn’t as much as it was when I was new to it eight years ago, but I’m still there. I’m also really good at it. When my career runs out in a few years-time I’ve already been promised an education as a stylist instead. They say I have a good sense of fashion,”

“I’ve told you that for years,” said Makoto with a small laugh. “Do you remember the school prom when I allowed you to pick out my outfit?” he asked, still wearing a smile on his face.

“What about it?” Kisumi stuffed his face and looked curiously at Makoto.

“You don’t remember?” Makoto’s jaw almost dropped in surprise. “You took three DAYS picking it out, you only found one at the last minute!”

Haruka started gathering the plates and went to serve the next dish. When he sat down again, Rin leaned in once more to whisper something in his ear again.

“Kiss me,”

It was the same words as before and Haruka got the feeling that he was supposed to laugh, this was only underlined by Rin’s wide grin and Haruka leaned closer to Rin to whisper in his ear.

“Why are you whispering ‘kiss me’?” he asked.

Rin just grinned even wider at Haruka, and that’s when the bell started ringing. Haruka could hear it too now. The only reason why he hadn’t got the joke was because Rin was simply way too good at English to make it understandable.

The rest of the night went on as peacefully as ever… well, as peacefully as it could get when Nagisa was in the house and Rin had some evil plans up his sleeve of starting a fight on purpose later that same night. However he won’t need to do that.

They were half way through the dessert when Rin decided to whisper Haruka in the ear again about that little phrase he’d found in the name of their guest.

Haruka sensed it and turned his head to tell Rin to stop. It had already been past the 10th time that night that Rin had whispered those words, and to be honest, it was getting on Haruka’s nerves… a lot. It wasn’t even that good.

Somehow their noses went past each other and thereby they missed the warning before it was too late and their lips collided.

Rin and Haruka sat like that in shock and surprised for a moment, eyes wide open, lips locked together. Everyone else around the table fell silent at the sight.

The two pulled apart after five seconds of the unintentional kiss and Rin started wiping his mouth with a disgusted expression on his face while Haruka just glared at him in return.

“Just because I whispered it in your ear all night doesn’t mean you have to take the joke seriously and do it!” Rin yelled. “How can you be so dumb!”

Haruka stood. “All I wanted was to tell you to shut up!” he said, not quite as loud, but almost.

“You could’ve waited!” Rin yelled. “You knew I was gonna do it!”

“I thought you’d stop when I turned my head!” Haruka yelled.

“I don’t know about you, but I can’t predict the future!” Rin nearly screamed. “So would you please, you stoic freak!”

Haruka’s face did remain stoic while Rin’s was heating up more and more by the second.

“That’s enough!” Makoto yelled. He stood up along with Rin and Haruka who had been standing for some time now. “Now go to your rooms and calm yourselves,”

The entire kitchen was silent for a moment after Makoto’s outburst until Nagisa decided to speak up. “They can’t do that, Mako-chan. They’re sharing the same room,” he pointed out.

Makoto’s face froze for a second as he started thinking quickly of what to do then. “Rin, go to your room, Haruka you go to the bathroom. Now,” he demanded and the two boys left to their respective locations.

“That was some heated argument,” Kisumi smiled as he leaned back in his chair. “I’ll admit though, I didn’t imagine the stoic boy… Haruka? Start yelling like that, hold on a minute,” Kisumi continued in the same breath. “Isn’t Haruka a girly name?”

Makoto nodded. “Though if I were you, I’d not mention that when he’s around. Or when Rin is for that matter. It’s a sore topic to both of them,”

“Rei-chan’s name is girly too,” Nagisa pointed out.

“I’d rather not get on that topic either,” Rei said while fixing his glasses.

“Well, Rin shouldn’t worry about his name too much,” Kisumi said. “My manager’s first-name is Rin too and he’s not complaining,”

“Maybe you should tell him that?” Makoto advised.

“I’ll do it right away!” Kisumi stood up with a bright smile on his face.

Makoto placed his hands on Kisumi’s shoulder and pushed him back down, “Bad idea,” he said. “None of them are in the mood at the moment,”

Kisumi nodded understandingly.

The rest of the night continued in peace. Makoto saw Kisumi off at around ten and then went to check on Rin and Haruka. Rin was sitting in their room, just looking out at the window while texting Sousuke. This was what he’d been doing ever since he was send in there.

When Makoto entered the bathroom he found something a bit more disturbing though. Haruka was sitting, only wearing his swimsuit in the shower. Against most odds, he had fallen asleep with the water running. Makoto turned it off and dried Haruka’s soaked body before getting him to bed. He’d been working hard all day too so it was understandable that he was this tired. He didn’t even wake up when Makoto called for Rin to help carry him to his bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title is not very creative. I know. The joke has been used about so many times that I highly doubt there is any fun about it anymore. But as you may have noticed, I use one-word titles for the chapters, and for that "Kiss Me" doesn't exactly apply.   
> I hope you still like the story.   
> Just for note. I don't usually upload this fast. But because of the fact that the story is already uploaded elsewhere and a sequel is on its way I feel like I have to rush it a bit, so you are up to date if you decide to read the sequel too. 
> 
> Jackie


	15. Drifting

Haruka didn’t notice exactly when it started, but when he thought back, the most ideal point was at Kisumi’s first visit at their place when he ended up accidentally kissing Rin, or was it the other way around? Anyway it was around that time that Haruka supposed they started drifting apart.

At school Rin would spend more and more time with Sousuke. They’d speak to each other a lot more than any of the others did. Aiichiro would spend most of his time following Rin and Sousuke around the school. To Haruka it seemed he looked up to them. It was understandable. He was the youngest in their year and didn’t seem to be able to shake the feeling off.

“Nanase-kun?” Aki sat next to Haruka with her lunch in her hands. Haruka had nothing today. He’d been too busy making lunch for everyone else so he’d forgotten to make one for himself.

“What is it, Yazaki-san?” asked Haruka.

Aki looked at him shyly. “Didn’t you bring your lunch?” she asked.

“No,” Haruka said. He looked at the street down below. They were in the classroom now seeing as it was a little cold outside.

Aki thought for a bit, “We can share mine if you want,” she offered.

Why did she do that? It was her lunch. She should eat it herself. Haruka didn’t even feel like accepting offers from others anyway.

“No thanks…” he said. He kept on staring out the window. Truth be told, he was hungry, but he didn’t let it show. Why would he worry her? It would just make her more persistent and it would eventually come to the point where she’d annoy Haruka.

“Okay,” Aki smiled, but the look in her eyes told Haruka that he had hurt her by turning down her offer.

“Nanase-san?” It was Aiichiro this time who had finally stopped chasing Rin and Sousuke around. “Shouldn’t you eat?” he asked.

“No,” was the answer.

Aiichiro met Aki’s eyes and she silently told him to leave Haruka be for the time being. He won’t accept the offers of food anyway. It didn’t even seem like he wanted to be bothered.

“Rin-san is a lot nicer…” mumbled Aiichiro.

Aki smiled. “Do you also call Yamasaki-kun by Sousuke-san as well?” she asked.

Aiichiro shook his head. “No, only Rin-san,” he said.

Haruka wondered why he’d even want to call everyone by -san when they were in the same year. He even called the boys by -san. But he had no saying in the matter. It was all up to Aiichiro what he wanted.

The door to the classroom opened and Nagisa entered the room. “Haru-chan!” he smiled as he saw his brother by the window.

“Haru-chan?” Aki looked from Haruka to Nagisa.

“Drop the –chan already,” Haruka mumbled.

“Nitori-senpai!” Momotarou waved at Aiichiro as he entered the classroom as well. “We’re sorry, Nagisa-kun wanted to see the school and I decided to show him around,”

“Haru-chan, where is Rin-chan?” Nagisa asked.

“With Yamasaki,” was the answer.

“Sou-chan from next door?” Nagisa tilted his head in a questioning way.

Haruka just nodded at that.

“That’s too bad, I really wanted to see both you and Rin-chan,” Nagisa said in a saddened voice.

“You see us every day,”

“But you’re always busy,”

Haruka had nothing to say to that. It was true. During the daytime all of them had a lot of things to do. Once they got home from the swim club it was time for Haruka to prepare dinner and afterwards they had to do their homework. Haruka was pretty sure that at the time up until dinner Rin was either doing homework or hanging out with Sousuke. He didn’t know though.

Nagisa and Momotarou left shortly after and Rin and Sousuke came back just before class started.

* * *

 

Rin wasn’t at the swim club after school because he had decided to hang out with Sousuke for the afternoon. Haruka didn’t mind that, though he did miss racing Rin, even if he usually considered it a pain that Rin wanted to race him all the time.

As it turned out, Rin didn’t come home for dinner either that night. In fact he was home some time past nine causing Makoto to grow worried because he didn’t know where Rin was.

“Where’ve you been?” Makoto asked as Rin entered the apartment that night.

“I was at Sousuke’s place,” Rin answered while taking off his shoes.

Makoto nodded. He accepted that. “Next time you should text one of us and let us know where you go, aside from that, I have nothing against it,”

Rin nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind. I’m sorry, Makoto,”

Makoto accepted the apology before demanding that it was time for Nagisa to go to bed.

This was the first little signs that something was changing. However nobody noticed them, and if they did notice, they didn’t act on them.

The lunch breaks would continue the same with Haruka hanging out with Aki whenever she wasn’t hanging out with a few girls that just gathered around her sometimes. Rin and Sousuke would be some other place and Haruka won’t bother following them. He let Aiichiro do that instead.

Haruka would also little by little spend more and more time on his own in the pool. Every once in a while the entire group would be there of course, but sometimes Rin and Sousuke won’t be there and other times, Aki or Aiichiro would be missing too, it could also be both.

Haruka was sad to admit it, but he was feeling kinda lonely.


	16. Stain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How much can a stain on the floor really mean?

It was around the 4th time Rin and Haruka were working at the swim club with their cleaning duties. Haruka had found a spot that just won’t be clean no matter how hard he scrubbed it and now both he and Rin were leaning over it while doing their best to make the stain go away.

“Haru, are you feeling lonely?” Rin asked. He didn’t look up at Haruka but there was no one else he could be speaking to. They were alone in the changing room.

“What?” Haruka asked while still scrubbing.

“Yazaki-san said that you looked kinda lonely from time to time, so… I just felt like I should ask,” Rin excused himself. It was true that Aki had mentioned it. Rin had not been aware of the fact until she pointed it out, however, Haru didn’t look lonely whenever Rin looked, but there was always the chance he hadn’t read his twin well enough.

“I’m fine,” Haruka answered. “Don’t worry,”

Rin nodded. “I thought so, you don’t look lonely either,” he said.

They kept on scrubbing the stain for a while longer. It was starting to disappear a little but it was going slowly. Then Haruka’s phone went off

“It’s Makoto?” asked Rin.

Haruka nodded before pulling the phone out of his pocket. The reason why Rin had known it was Makoto was because of the fact that Haruka preferred leaving his phone at home, however Makoto wanted him to carry it around and therefore, whenever Makoto wanted to speak to the twins, he’d always call Haruka to ensure that he had his phone with him. Everyone else normally called Rin because of the silence they were met with when calling Haruka.

“Haru?” It really was the one and only Makoto in the other end of the phone.

“What?” Haruka asked.

“Is something bothering you at work? You seem frustrated,” Makoto said with a smile in his voice.

“It’s fine, just a stain on the floor,” Haruka said. “What do you want?”

Makoto paused before answering. “I know it’s sudden, but I’ve spoken to Kisumi and he is coming over for dinner tonight. I already called Rei and he and Nagisa are cleaning up at home. He’ll bring something, so you don’t have to think of cooking,”

“Okay, thanks,” Haruka said. “When?”

“At seven,” answered Makoto,  “However I won’t be home by then. I can’t get off early today,”

“I understand,” Haruka said. “It’s fine,”

“I’m glad you don’t mind, tell Rin please,” Makoto was still smiling, unaware that he had just ruined Haruka’s perfect Saturday night with the news.

“I’ll do that,” Haruka said. “See you, Makoto,” he said.

“Yes, see you, Haru,” Makoto said. “Take care,” he hung up and Haruka looked at Rin.

“Kisumi is coming over tonight,” he said.

Rin nodded and scrubbed. The stain had faded a little more than before Haruka picked up the phone. Haruka went back to scrubbing as well.

“I’m gonna accept Sousuke’s offer of sleeping at his place then,” said Rin with a smile. “I’ll just tell Makoto it’s something we planned for some time,” He looked at Haruka’s expression and interpreted it correctly. “You can come along if you want, you don’t like Kisumi either, do you?” he asked.

“Would that be okay?” Haruka asked. He finally managed to scrub the stain half off.

Rin smiled cheerfully. “I’m sure it’s fine. Sousuke may not look like it, but he’s actually a really nice guy,”

Haruka didn’t doubt that for a second. The problem was that he and Sousuke just didn’t connect at all and therefore it was more than just a little difficult to create something that even looked like a friendship between them.

They continued on scrubbing until the stain was completely gone and they were finally free to go.

 

Rin knocked on Sousuke’s door. His body was shaking with expectations. It was obvious how bad he wanted to see Sousuke at the moment. Haruka stood one and half a step behind Rin, keeping a distance more to the door than to Rin. He didn’t know how to feel. He had no friends in the apartment.

The door opened and Sousuke peaked out and pulled the door all open before he noticed that Rin wasn’t alone out there.

“What’s up Rin?” he asked.

“It’s just that Kisumi is coming over tonight and we don’t really feel like being home when he’s there,” Rin explained.

Sousuke smiled at Rin but the look he send Haruka was something entirely different from what Rin got. He only did it when Rin wasn’t looking though.

Haruka stood completely still. He didn’t move a muscle, his expression didn’t change either. He suddenly felt very, very small, and not just because Sousuke was 10 cm taller than him. It wasn’t a physical feeling. Somehow, right now, Haruka could completely relate to the stain on the floor in the boys changing room in the swim club. Small, dirty and unwanted, that was how he felt from the look that Sousuke send him.

“Rin,” Haruka caught Rin’s attention with just that. “Makoto told me to cook for tonight so you just go,” he said before turning on his heel and walking into their own apartment. Rin didn’t manage to say or do anything to stop Haruka before the door had closed behind him.

 

Kisumi arrived exactly at seven and Rei went to open, leaving Haruka and Nagisa stuck with their math problems for a while. It wasn’t like Haruka was that bad at math. He was actually average when it came to calculating. It was the threesome that troubled him. Nagisa had trouble with everything though.

“It’s weird to be here without Mako-chan,” Kisumi entered the living room, followed by Rei. “But at least you and Nagisa are here,”

“Haru-chan’s here too,” Nagisa butted in with an excited smile.

Kisumi nodded and send Haruka the same look as Sousuke had send him earlier that day. That one look that made him feel more like a stain on the floor than an actual human. Kisumi handed Nagisa a lollipop with strawberry flavor and then placed some white boxes on a table. “I got this from an Indian restaurant,” Kisumi said.

Haruka narrowed his eyes. “It won’t stay warm until Makoto’s here,” he said.

“It can be heated up,” Kisumi smiled.

Haruka let out a sigh. He didn’t want to argue with Makoto’s friend. He had too much respect for his foster father for that.

Makoto came home half an hour later and helped Kisumi heat up the food before they sat and ate. Haruka was disappointed. It wasn’t like he had expected Kisumi to cook for himself. He was a model and it was likely he didn’t have time for it, but he should at least know what good quality food was. This certainly wasn’t good quality.

Through the entire night Kisumi send Haruka those looks that made him feel more like a stain on the floor than a person. This left Haruka wondering if it would have been better to go against Sousuke and just stay at his place along with Rin for the night instead.

“Is something wrong with the food, Haruka?” asked Kisumi. “I’m sure this is not as good as you would be able to make it, but I thought I’d lighten the load for everyone, since the news of my visit came so suddenly,” he sounded really kind when he said this.

“The food is fine,” Haruka said and took another mouthful of the not-so-good Indian food.

Kisumi went back to talking to Makoto. They were talking about the hospital, but somehow Kisumi got the topic turned over on something with respect, and every time he spoke of disrespectful or ungrateful people, he’d always glare at Haruka, as if saying ‘I’m actually talking about you’. However he didn’t ever come close to bringing Haruka’s name into the conversation.

Haruka started gathering the plates and prepare to wash the dishes while wondering what he’d ever done wrong to deserve for Kisumi to act like this towards him. Had he done something, or was it just Haruka’s bad luck, that had ruined the connection between them too, like with Sousuke.

Haruka couldn’t answer those questions, but he knew one thing for sure. If things kept up like this, he would soon lose everyone who meant something to him, starting with Rin and Makoto.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't even know how I came up with the idea with the stain anymore. But I'm impressed at how much I could get to go on from that.


	17. Convenient

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haruka bumps into someone very important.

Haruka awoke the following day and at first he didn’t know why. It was still pretty early. He looked across the room to Rin’s bed and noticed that it was empty. He had expected nothing less. Rin did say he’d sleep over at Sousuke’s place.

Haruka listened and heard the sound of footsteps in the house. He recognized the sound of them with ease. When he couldn’t sleep in the early Sunday mornings he would always listen to the sound of those footsteps. They belonged to Makoto.

Haruka got up and went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for Makoto, so he shouldn’t worry about that. Makoto entered the kitchen five minutes later to a prepared meal and smiled surprised at Haruka.

“Did I wake you up?” he asked.

Haruka shook his head. It wasn’t Makoto that awoke him. Silence fell on them as Makoto ate his breakfast and Haruka just watched for a while without interrupting. It was obvious that Makoto was stressed.

“Where are you going?” Haruka finally asked as Makoto put down the bowl.

“They called me in for an extra day of work,” Makoto smiled kindly.

Haruka nodded. He felt really bad for Makoto. He had been forced to work so much ever since they got to Tokyo for a lot less than usually. And if that wasn’t enough, he had even been moved to a different department than what he was used to.

“Well, I’m off,” Makoto stood up and left the bowl on the table. Haruka just took it and started cleaning it without questioning. “I’ll see you tonight, Haru,” he said. Then he left the house.

Haruka sat up for a while, staring out the window and feeling strangely lonely. He didn’t know where that feeling came from.

Eventually Nagisa and Rei got up as well and Haruka prepared breakfast for the three of them. Nagisa was not shutting up for a second about all the things that he and Momotarou were gonna do today. Apparently they’d planned on spending the day together.

Rin entered as they were half way through breakfast. He looked really tired somehow and Haruka found it easy to guess why. Rin was the type who liked to talk, and when sleeping with friends, he had always been talking almost all night. About a month after Rin and Haruka had changed school they’d been on a trip with the class where they were sleeping in tents. All the boys had to share a tent and half of them were even more tired the following morning because Rin had kept them awake half the night with his talking.

“Hey guys…” Rin groaned.

“Rin-chan!” Nagisa exclaimed happily and forgot everything about breakfast because apparently hugging Rin was more important. Rin however, did his best to push Nagisa away.

“Not now, Nagisa,” said Rin as he sat down on one of the chairs around the table.

“Was it fun?” Haruka asked and met Rin’s eyes.

“Yeah, we were looking for shooting stars,” Rin said and smiled. If any other boy said those words, Haruka would start questioning their sexuality, but with Rin, it was perfectly normal to looking for shooting stars. He and Haruka had done it too, both before and after they moved from the orphanage. Once Rin had the entire family go stargazing actually.

“It must’ve been beautiful,” Rei said with the same expression as any other time when he saw something he found beautiful.

Rin smiled. “How was your night? Was it nice having Kisumi over again?” he looked at Haruka. “What’d you end up cooking?” he asked.

“Haruka wasn’t-“ Rei started but when he met Haruka’s eyes he quickly cut himself off. It was clear that Haruka didn’t want him to talk further about it.

“It went fine,” Haruka said. He completely avoided the question asked directly to him. He just stood up and went to look in the fridge to see if they missed something. There were a few things, milk and rice among them, so Haruka had to go to the convenience store to buy it. That was a perfect excuse for leaving. “I’ll go shopping,” he said before heading out to do just that. 

* * *

 

There were a lot of people in the convenience store considering that it was Sunday. It was just Haruka’s luck that it was by far not his first time here and that he could find his way around everything in here.

Haruka went to pick up some rice. To his surprise there weren’t many left. He picked up a bag and looked at the remaining two. He hoped they’d fill up pretty soon.

“Excuse me,” a woman looked up at Haruka. He recognized her as Mrs. Yamasaki, Sousuke’s mother. He’d seen her a couple of times before, passed by her on his way home and such. He’d never spoken to her though.

“Could you help me reach the bread on the top shelf?” she asked and nodded to the top shelf where the bread was laying. She was about a head shorter than Haruka and even he would normally find it a bit difficult to reach stuff on the top shelf. If possible, he’d usually ask Rin to get it while hiding the fact that he found such things difficult, while Rin found it easy just because he was 2 cm taller.

Haruka couldn’t see a way out of this situation, and despite this being difficult, he could still reach the bread, unlike Mrs. Yamasaki. He did as asked and handed her the bread.

“Thank you very much,” she said. “Aren’t you one of Sousuke’s friends, you live with Rin-kun in the apartment next to ours,” she said.

Haruka nodded. “My name is Nanase Haruka,” he said.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Mrs. Yamasaki said. “Thanks for the help, Nanase-kun,” she said.

Haruka nodded and turned around and by that, he bumped directly into someone who fell directly on their butt. Their groceries landed everywhere around them.

The first thing Haruka noticed was the maroon hair and for a second, he actually believed that it was Rin who he’d bumped into, but this person was too short, too light and too feminine to come even close to be Rin.

Haruka knelt down and reached out his hand to the girl on the floor. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” the girl accepted his hand and let him help her on her feet. While he did so, he somehow got the feeling that he’d seen her before. He just couldn’t remember where for the time being. “Aren’t you Nagisa-kun’s brother?” asked the girl. “Matsuoka-senpai or Nanase-senpai,” she said in a wonder of which one it was.

“Nanase Haruka,” Haruka said. He then looked questioning at the girl. He couldn’t remember her name, but he did remember now that she was one of Nagisa’s classmates. He’d seen her on the first day in the swim club.

“I’m Matsuoka Gou, but everyone calls me Kou,” she said.

Haruka doubted that. “Nagisa calls you by Gou at home,” he said.

Gou now looked like she was ready to rip off Nagisa’s head. “I told him countless times…” she mumbled while trying to relax.

Haruka decided to not bother with the conversation and went to pick up all the groceries that Gou had dropped on the floor. He handed them to her.

“Thanks, Nanase-senpai,” she said.

“Just Haruka,” Haruka told her.

“Thanks Haruka-senpai,” Gou smiled. They started walking together. Both were apparently done shopping and just needed to check their groceries before going home.

As they stood in the line Gou started talking again.

“Actually, I’ve wanted to talk to you and Matsuoka-senpai for some time now,” she said.

Haruka just looked at her while wondering why she’d wanted to talk to them so bad. They were nothing more but Nagisa’s brothers and that wasn’t even official.

“You both have really good looking muscles,” Gou explained. Her eyes were glowing. “Besides, I’m interested in if Nagisa is telling the truth when he says you’re twins,” Gou continued.

“He is,” Haruka said. He understood why she doubted it. It was only way too likely that his and Rin’s looks were only half the reason.

“But what about your surnames?” she asked.

“Don’t know,” Haruka said.

They exited the convenience store. Gou looked at Haruka and stopped for a moment. “I have to go this way,” she pointed the opposite direction of where Haruka was gonna go. “Say hi to Nagisa-kun for me,” Gou smiled as she raised her hand for a wave and Haruka hesitantly did the same as he watched her turn around and leave. He then made his way home.


	18. Waiting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin is exceptionally good at keeping others waiting.

The phone beeped once more. It was the fifth time in the seventh call. Haruka removed the phone from his ear and looked at the display. It wasn’t usual for him to call anyone this much but Rin had promised to study English with him for their upcoming exams and he still had yet to come home.

Haruka looked down at the book with the letters in strange combinations. He tried to see if he could make any sense of it, but it was only a couple of words in each line or so that was actually something he understood.

Rei and Nagisa were home, but Haruka knew that Nagisa was just as bad at English as him, and Rei wasn’t much better either, besides Rei was busy helping Nagisa with his homework. And then there was Makoto, but he won’t be home until around dinnertime.

Haruka sighed and closed the book before heading to the kitchen to prepare dinner instead. It was Wednesday today, also the day of water, and the only day of the week when Haruka was allowed to make mackerel.

Makoto only just made it home in time for dinner and he was extremely tired when he finally entered the house and sat down on one of the chairs by the table.

“A hard day?” asked Haruka.

Makoto nodded. “I’ve been on my feet since morning. I had lunch standing,” he said.

Haruka just nodded and went to get Rei and Nagisa and tell them that it was time to eat.

Dinner was quickly over with and Haruka washed the dishes with the help from Makoto for tonight. They normally took turns. Wednesdays were normally shared between Rin and Haruka, but Rin still wasn’t home so therefore Makoto took over and helped instead.

“How is it going with the studies?” asked Makoto as he wiped off another plate.

Haruka just shrugged. He didn’t want to lie to Makoto and didn’t feel like telling the truth either, that it wasn’t going at all. However, Makoto knew how to read Haruka and knew exactly what the shrug meant.

“Is English bothering you?” he asked.

Haruka just nodded at this.

Makoto thought for a bit. “I can help you if you want,” he said. “I’m not as good as Rin, but it shouldn’t matter too much,” he said.

Haruka nodded and he and Makoto finished washing the dishes before Haruka went and found his English book before heading back to the kitchen. He opened it on the right page and let Makoto read it.

It took some time, and Haruka could tell that Makoto struggled at a few points in the text as well to have it make any sense, however it looked like it made more sense to him than it did to Haruka.

They started discussing the text. They talked about all the words Haruka didn’t understand and Makoto tried to pronounce them for him, as he’d learn something from it. Haruka did his best, but nothing really made sense, still. It never did when it came to English.

Rin came home when they were halfway through the text. He was carrying a sports bag and his maroon locks were still slightly wet. Haruka had no trouble figuring where he’d disappeared to.

“Welcome home Rin,” said Makoto as he looked up and smiled at Rin.

“Thanks,” Rin tossed his bag on the floor. “You got my text,” he said.

“Yeah,” Makoto said. “Thanks for informing me, though I didn’t expect you to hang out with Yamasaki until this late,”

Rin picked up his phone from the bag and checked it. He then looked at Haruka, first in confusion, and then he realized why Haruka had called him so many times.

“I’m so sorry, Haru!” he said. “I totally forgot!”

Haruka shrugged. “It’s fine,” he said before looking down at the English book again. It wasn’t fine. It wasn’t fine at all, however Haruka didn’t know what else to say when Rin apologized like that. It was obvious that he meant the apology.

“What are you apologizing for?” asked Makoto. He was confused now, seeing as he was usually the one to apologize the most.

Rin said nothing for a short while, “I promised Haru to help him study for the English exam this afternoon,” he admitted. “But when Sousuke offered for me to go with him for a swim, I forgot about it and accepted,”

“Well, you better take over from here,” said Makoto. “It’s so difficult that I have trouble understanding it as well,”

Rin nodded and went to help Haruka study up on the English for the exam. From that point on it went a bit better than with Makoto because Rin was by far the best at English. About an hour later, they were done and Haruka actually felt like he’d learned something. He normally felt like he learned more English from studying with Rin than from the English classes.

“Oh yeah,” Makoto said, like he remembered something. “Kisumi invited all of us to an amusement park this Sunday,”

Rin and Haruka exchanged looks. Haruka hoped Rin wouldn’t abandon him this time either, though was that even possible, judging by the way things were going.

* * *

 

It was now Sunday morning. Everyone had already finished breakfast and the family was just waiting for Rin to come. He had been sleeping at Sousuke’s apartment the night before, but promised he would be there in time before they left. Kisumi would come to pick them up in his car.

There was a knock on the door and Makoto went to open.

“Kisumi!” he smiled brightly as he saw Kisumi standing outside the door, all set and ready to go.

“Are you guys ready?” asked Kisumi and looked behind Makoto, at Haruka, Nagisa and Rei.

Makoto nodded. “Rin is missing though,” he said.

“Well, they’re closing early today since it’s Sunday,” said Kisumi, “So if we wait much longer we won’t have the time to enjoy ourselves,”

Makoto nodded. “Haru, would you please write a note for Rin that we have had to leave without him?” he asked.

Haruka nodded and went to do just that, however he didn’t put much into it, since he knew that Rin was staying away on purpose. He had hoped Rin would be with them for today and then he and Haruka could do something, somewhere, maybe even sneak away as they won’t have to stick around Kisumi too much, however it seemed Rin had chosen Sousuke over him again.

“Well, shall we go?” asked Kisumi as Haruka returned. Makoto was already back. He had had to pick something up from his room.

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Makoto said and he and the others followed Kisumi out to his car and they drove to the amusement park.

It was a bother. Haruka didn’t enjoy himself one bit. There was hardly anything that involved water in the amusement park and he spend most of his time just sitting and watching the others enjoy themselves in coasters and whatever else the park had to offer.

The only times he went to ride something was when Rei was too scared to go with Nagisa to ride something and neither Makoto, nor Kisumi wanted to come along either. Even that wasn’t really enjoyable because Rin wasn’t there.


	19. Losing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things worsen and Rin is naive.

It was the following Saturday. Rin had been sleeping over at Sousuke’s place the other night. Once again, Haruka was alone with Rei and Nagisa in the morning. He made breakfast as usual and ate with Nagisa and Rei. Then all three of them went to study. Exams would start on Monday so they were almost out of time.

“Haru-chan are you gonna go work today?” asked Nagisa as he stuffed his face in the usual way that was characteristic for him.

“Yeah,” Haruka answered.

“But don’t anyone wanna have you enter as a guest?” Nagisa blinked confused at Haruka, he obviously couldn’t see why people won’t want to help Haruka.

“It doesn’t help if Haruka isn’t social,” said Rei.

Nagisa thought. “I could ask Momo-chan to bring you, but that would mean he couldn’t bring me in,” Nagisa said.

“I don’t mind working,” said Haruka as he got up and washed his own dishes. It was true. He really didn’t mind working like that. He enjoyed doing housework. That including cleaning, even if it was elsewhere.

It was soon time to go and Haruka prepared to leave. He made lunch for Nagisa and Rei. They would just need to heat it up whenever they got hungry. Then he exited the apartment to go cleaning.

* * *

There were less at the swim club today than there usually were on Saturdays, and unfortunately Rin was among those who were missing.

Haruka decided to help out cleaning in the pool area where there was only one worker for today, just to pass the time until Rin would arrive.

“Don’t you and that other boy have your own area to clean?” asked the worker, a female.

“He’s not here yet,” Haruka said.

“Then why are you helping me?” She asked.

Haruka shrugged. “Passing time,” he said.

The woman smiled kindly. “Thank you,” she told him and went back to just working. Haruka did the same.

Time flew by. Before Haruka knew it, he was done with the pool area and even the pool itself and Rin still had yet to show up. Haruka had been here for two hours by now and was starting to believe that Rin would never actually show.

He decided to get started on the changing room, hoping that Rin would come some time soon, but before he did that, he picked up his phone to see if Rin had send him a text or anything.

He hadn’t.

Haruka looked blankly at the screen for a few minutes before deciding to make one attempt to call Rin. However after the seventh ring, he had to give up and hang up again.

Haruka went and got everything he’d need to clean the changing room and did it all by himself. When he shared it with Rin, it would normally take a little over an hour to finish, however at this point, when he was on his own, it took almost two hours.

“Hey, Nanase-kun,” said Sasabe as he entered the changing room. Haruka was nearly done and just wiping the last bit of the floor before he could leave. He only nodded in respond to Sasabe’s greeting.

“Where is Matsuoka-kun?” asked Sasabe.

Haruka showed the room, signaling that Rin obviously wasn’t here.

“I see,” Sasabe sighed. “I’ve been told you worked really hard today,” he then continued.

Haruka said nothing. He knew more was coming and didn’t find it necessary to interrupt Sasabe with a needless little ‘yeah’ or whatever else people used to say.

“However, I originally hired the two of you as one,” he continued. “So since only one of you are here, I’m not sure if I should allow your payment,” he said.

Haruka stopped wiping the floor and looked up at Sasabe in confusion.

“That means, because Matsuoka-kun is missing, the deal between the three of us will fall,” said Sasabe. “This is your last day of work here and last day as a member. Same goes for Matsuoka-kun of course,”

Haruka nodded. His gaze dropped to the floor. Something heavy grasped around his chest and heart and it felt like it was dragged downwards. He couldn’t describe what it was, but it made him feel like crying, just like Rin had done, the day when they left Iwatobi.

Haruka finished wiping the floor and put everything back where he got them. When he was about to leave the swim club Sasabe stopped him once more though and handed him something. It felt like folded paper.

Haruka didn’t look at it right away. He waited until he had exited the swim club before unfolding it. It was 4000 yen. It was enough to cover a membership for this week, but nothing more, and only for one person. It made Haruka feel better.

Now he got one option of two. He could either head right back and buy himself a membership for the following week or he could save this for some other time when he’d need water more.

He decided on the latter. He didn’t know why, he just had a gut feeling that he would be in need of a membership in the near future.

* * *

 

Rin came home after dinner again that night. He was really seeming happy about something and talked none stop about how he and Sousuke were gonna train to become elite swimmers and participate in the Olympics someday.

Haruka found it difficult to share Rin’s joy, though he didn’t say a word as the others asked Rin about anything that had to do with this idea of his, while annoyance, jealousy and sadness slowly consumed Haruka.

“You can train with us after the exams on Monday,” Rin said as he turned to Haruka. “It’ll be fun, Ai will be there too,” he said.

“We can’t,” Haruka just said.

Rin looked at him with confusion. “Why is that?” he asked.

Haruka looked directly at Rin, the annoyance and slight anger started to boil inside of him, but it wasn’t shown on his facial expression.

“We lost our membership,” said Haruka.

“When?” Rin asked in disbelief.

“Today,” Haruka answered. “You didn’t show up for work,”

Rin looked like he could slap himself across the face, and somehow Haruka really wanted him to do just that. “I’m really sorry, Haru,” Rin said. “I forgot everything about our work because I was swimming with Sousuke,”

Haruka had figured that by the time Rin didn’t pick up the phone when he tried calling him earlier today. He didn’t really need Rin’s words to confirm it.

“Then what are you gonna do about membership?” asked Nagisa, his round eyes fixated on both Rin and Haruka.

Rin shrugged. “I don’t know, guess I’ll just go with Sousuke like the first time,” he said extremely calm.

Haruka said nothing. There was nothing to say. He didn’t want Rin to know about his 4000 yen, and he had no answer to Nagisa’s question besides that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, originally I intended to upload 10 chapters pr day, but I figure this is a good place to stop, and therefore I'll upload 11 chapters tomorrow instead. I asked my sister for advice and she said I could do this. I still feel like I'm being mean though. I'm sorry. But I have decided. Then, to make up, we'll start at a super sweet scene tomorrow. I hope you look forward to that.   
> Keep reading!
> 
> Jackie


	20. Comfort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nagisa and Haruka have a deep conversation and there is a flashback to when Haruka was 12

It was in the middle of October. Time had passed quickly the past three and a half month. At least that was what it seemed to Haruka. So much had changed ever since they got to Tokyo. The memories of their simple life in Iwatobi seemed so distant to him now.

It was in the middle of the exam period. It was Tuesday night, and again Rin was staying out. He had been doing that a lot lately.

It had been ever since they started school in August and Rin saw Sousuke more and more in his spare time. Whenever he was home, he and Haruka would barely exchange a word unless they were arguing. Normally this won’t matter to Haruka, but somehow it felt wrong. He found that he actually minded, and found that he was extremely upset all the time.

Makoto was working late tonight so, since Haruka didn’t feel like cooking, he had ordered pizza for the night. Rin would’ve pleased the idea, if he’d been there.

Now they had finished eating and Nagisa and Rei were doing things Haruka couldn’t care less about, while Haruka himself, had turned on the shower and sat under it, curled up like a ball. It was almost like sitting in cold rain.

He sat like this because he had lost his and Rin’s memberships of the swim club just this weekend. This was more than just a little disturbing to him.

There was a knock on the door and Nagisa peaked into the bathroom.

“Haru-chan?” he asked. He could hear the water running but he couldn’t see Haruka in the shower because he was hidden behind a wall. Yet he knew Haruka was in there, there had been no one else in the bathroom ever since dinner and Haruka hadn’t even left.

Haruka didn’t do anything to respond as Nagisa entered the bathroom and closed the door behind him. He went and turned off the water, and Haruka still didn’t react. He didn’t even move when Nagisa wrapped a towel around his shoulders and sat next to him, not caring that his pants would get soaking wet from all the water on the floor.

“Mako-chan would be worried if he was here,” Nagisa said.

Haruka said nothing to this statement. He knew that Nagisa was right. If Makoto had been home, he would’ve entered the bathroom a long time ago. Rin would’ve done the same… or would he? He would if it had been back at Iwatobi, but back at Iwatobi, things like these won’t happen because there was no Sousuke, and no Kisumi either.

“Haru-chan, why are you crying!” Nagisa exclaimed surprised. He sat up straight to look at Haruka’s face to see if it really was tears, or just water running from his hair.

Haruka lifted a hand to his eyes. It really did feel like tears. He was surprised. He never cried. Not when he slipped and fell as a child, that one and only time, or when they graduated from elementary school, or when they left Iwatobi just this summer. Not even the time when he was bullied for being a water freak did he cry. He’d just ignore them.

“I’m not crying,” Haruka denied.

“Did someone hurt you? Tell Rin-chan who and he’ll do as he did last time!” Nagisa exclaimed.

Haruka held back a hiss at that. He wasn’t proud of that time back then when Rin had interfered, even if it did make the bullying stop, he wasn’t proud of his brother handling the things for him. 

* * *

 

_It wasn’t the first time Haruka was picked on by others. They would find all sorts of reasons for doing it. In the first and second grade it had been because his name was girly. Rin had been teased about that too, but it died down the first time Rin lost his temper and started yelling at them. Then the students showed both him and Haruka respect. Rin even managed to maintain the respect people showed him after they transferred school, to the same as Rei and Nagisa. That school was much closer to Makoto’s place. It was called Iwatobi elementary._

_It had been almost two years since then. Rin and Haruka were now in the fifth grade. Haruka had been picked on about many things by their classmates from the day he and Rin transferred into the class._

_“Look there’s the freak,” one would whisper to his friends and they’d all start giggling._

_The bullying was never obvious like it had been in the first grade. There was no more name calling or loud laughing or arguments. Now it was whispers and mean pranks pulled from the shadows._

_Little by little things had taken a turn for the worse. The kids had gone from stealing papers and hiding pencils to pushing Haruka in the water at the swimming class and pretend that he just slipped._

_Haruka didn’t care. He enjoyed being in the water, and so what if he was pushed in? The water liked him. It would never hurt him._

_But Rin seemed to take notice of the mean pranks that would slowly get meaner. He would ask Haruka every now and then if there was something he wanted to talk about and Haruka would always deny it._

_“You don’t ever tell me anything!” Rin would yell then and that would be when they started arguing._

_This day they’d pulled the worst prank of all. Haruka’s bag had gone missing and he had walked around, looking for it. It had been a gift from Makoto. He had given a schoolbag to each of the twins the day before they transferred into their new school, and now it had gone missing._

_Haruka ended up finding it in the pool, everything was either flouting or had sunken to the bottom._

_Haruka stared at the scene for a few seconds before stripping down to his swimsuit and jumping into the pool. He had no other option but to gather everything down there. Looing on the bright side, it was summer, so the water was warm enough that he won’t get sick._

_Haruka had just managed to pick up everything and was about to climb out of the pool when a boy kicked his bag as it fell down in the pool again. Another pushed Haruka away from the poolside as he fell back into the water and swallowed a mouthful of it. He surfaced, and gasped for air while coughing trying to get the water out of his lungs._

_“Look, he likes water so much he’d even drown for it,” one of the boys grinned. The others laughed._

_“Don’t touch him anymore,” another said. “He’ll infect you with his weirdness,”_

_Haruka ignored them and went to gather his things again. They had fallen out of the bag once more when it had been thrown back into the pool._

_“Would you cut all of that out!” Everyone turned their heads to see Rin standing in the entrance to the pool area. He looked like he was boiling with anger._

_“Matsuoka-kun?” The boys stopped and stared at Rin. It was obvious they never intended for him to find out about all this. Haruka hadn’t wanted that either for that matter._

_“I’m not blind and I’m not stupid,” Rin said. “You’ve been picking on Haru ever since we got here two years ago,” he said. His fists were tightened up and his eyes were burning with rage. It was the first time Haruka ever saw him like that._

_“No we didn’t…” One of the boys tried to deny it. “We just happened to pass by here,”_

_Rin shook his head. “If I ever suspect you are bullying Haru again, it’ll be your bags floating in the school pool,” he said._

_The boys nodded and then left._

_Rin had helped Haruka up and they walked home together, just like in those stories Makoto would read aloud to Nagisa at night. However Haruka wasn’t proud of being saved like that. In fact, if it were up to him, Rin would never need to save him like that ever again. It had made him feel weak._

* * *

 

“Tell Rin-chan if someone hurt you,” Nagisa repeated.

Haruka sighed. There were exactly two reasons why he couldn’t do just that. The first one was that he didn’t want to be protected by Rin again. The second one was that he wasn’t sure how Rin would react if he found out he was the one who hurt Haruka. Then again, it wasn’t even said for sure if Rin even cared.

“No one hurt me,” Haruka lied.

Nagisa shook his head but said nothing else for a little while. He was clearly thinking about what else he could say to help Haruka stop crying.

“You know what I do whenever I’m upset Haru-chan?” asked Nagisa. Haruka wondered how Nagisa would even know what he did when he was upset. That thing seemed to be impossible. “Usually I go and eat something with strawberry flavor,” Nagisa said.

“How does that help?” Haruka asked.

“It’s not the strawberry flavor in particular… what I wanna say it that it helps to eat something you like,” Nagisa said.

Haruka nodded. Then he got up and got dressed. Maybe Nagisa’s advice would help. He went to the kitchen and took out one of the mackerels for tomorrow and started grilling it. There was nothing Haruka liked better than mackerel, and that was why he used this to prove if Nagisa was right about this little theory. It won’t matter if Makoto got home and got angry because Haruka didn’t make the mackerel on a water-day. He knew he’d be forgiven within a day anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter I held back yesterday. I hope you find it worth it. It is one of my favorite chapters if I may say so. 
> 
> Jackie


	21. Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gou talks to Haruka

It was now Friday and the day of the English exam. Everyone was set in the classrooms, and half the time had passed. It was a sunny day, and Haruka could feel the warm sunlight hitting him through the window, which he was sitting by.

He recalled all that Rei and Makoto had tried to teach him last night of the stupid language. He had been asked to translate sentences from Japanese to English and right now, he was at a loss. He was concentrating so hard his head was hurting.

He turned his head from the sound of a chair moving. He saw Rin stand up and turn in the exam. Then he left the classroom without looking at anyone. From the glimpse Haruka got at his face, he seemed to be happy about the exam. It seemed to have turned out well for him.

Haruka turned back to his own exam and made a pathetic attempt to translate the sentences. He only wished Rin had had the time to help him out, because somehow, when Rin helped Haruka understand the English, it actually made sense.

Half an hour after Rin had left, Sousuke finished the exam as well. Neither did he look at anyone when exiting.

After another hour, most of the class had left. There was now only half an hour left of the exam. Haruka heard the chair right next to him being moved and he looked to see Aki stand up and get ready to turn in her own exam. She looked over Haruka’s shoulder with a hint of concern in her eyes.

Haruka turned his gaze back to the paper and continued on the troublesome exam while he listened to Aki’s footsteps as she walked up and handed in the papers. He also listened as she returned.

From a hunch he got, he looked up at Aki’s table as she gathered her things and got a glimpse of a page in a grammar book that she just happened to have. Why didn’t anyone tell Haruka that a grammar book was allowed? The glimpse he got was helpful though. His eyes scanned the visible page and he felt like he could get on with his own exam as Aki packed the grammar book away and left the classroom.

The time passed and Haruka actually managed to finish his exam just as the teacher said that time was up.

The remaining few people of the class stood and went to turn in their exams. Aiichiro was among them too. He appeared to have had trouble with the exams as well.

The two of them ended up exiting the classroom together and walking with each other all the way down to the school yard. Haruka got the feeling that Aiichiro wanted to say something, but didn’t seem to be able to until they exited the school building.

“Nanase-san?” he asked as he stopped. Haruka did too. “Coach Sasabe says… that you and Rin-san lost your memberships… is that true?”

Haruka just nodded and Aiichiro’s eyes got a little wider.

“What are you going to do then?” He asked.

Haruka shrugged. “Rin might go with Yamasaki,” he said.

Aiichiro smiled. It was obvious Rin was his biggest concern. Somehow it seemed he had more respect towards Rin than anyone else, even Sousuke and Haruka. He nodded. “I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “So I’ll see Rin-san in the swim club today,” he stated.

Haruka nodded and the smile on the younger boy’s face got wider and his face was glowing with excitement.

“Thanks, Nanase-san,” he said. “I’ll see you!” He waved as he hurried out the school area.

Haruka went to sit somewhere and just watch as life passed by. He ended up by the cherry blossom which he could see from the window in their classroom. There was a bench there, and that was where he sat.

The sun was still out and shining down at him. It felt kinda good, though Haruka would prefer the feeling of water over sunlight any day.

“Haruka-senpai?” It was a girl’s voice and Haruka turned his head to meet crimson eyes that looked pretty similar to those he saw every day.

“Gou?” Haruka said slightly surprised to see her here. The 8th graders had been off from school a while ago now hadn’t they?

“Can I sit?” she asked.

Haruka moved, making room for Gou on the bench. She sat down on one end, and Haruka sat on the other. There was plenty of space between them. They weren’t so far away it looked like they weren’t talking, but they were a little further away from each other than normal policy craved.

“You just finished your English exam?” she asked.

Haruka nodded. He was still wondering what she was doing here and why she’d speak to him of all people when she had her own group of friends.

“How did it go?” Gou asked.

“Fine,” Haruka didn’t know what else to say.

“Hana-chan went to her club activities and I couldn’t stand being around Momotarou any longer,” Gou then whined as an explanation of where her friends were.

“Why are you talking to me then?” Haruka asked. She could’ve just gone home or something if this was the case with her friends. Haruka already figured that Nagisa had gone with Momotarou.

“I wanted to ask you a few questions,” She said. Her gaze fixated on her hands, which were resting in her lap. She seemed to be a bit nervous about whatever she was about to ask.

Haruka just sat and patiently waited for her to ask the first question. It took some time before she figured what his silence meant though.

“You and Matsuoka-senpai were adopted right?” she asked.

Haruka just nodded at the question. He knew she knew the answer to that anyway. She could ask Nagisa about it and already had.

“How much do you know of your biological family?” she asked.

Haruka thought back. How much had they learned from Makoto and from the orphanage? The more he thought about it, the less he knew. “Nothing really,” he said. “Rin and I are twins, that’s all,” he said.

Gou sighed. It seemed like she was about to give up on whatever her idea was.

“Haruka-senpai,” she said. “Do you know the date of when you were brought there, or how old you were?” she asked. There was something in her tone that told Haruka that this was the final question and he felt like he really needed to come up with an answer.

“We have been in the orphanage as long as I can remember,” Haruka informed. “Though…” He trailed off as a piece of information came to mind. “We do have documents on that somewhere at home,”

“Could I see them?” Gou’s face lit up as if Haruka had just switched on the light.

“Not now,” came the answer.

Gou accepted that answer. “Could you please try to find them and let me have a look sometime?” she asked then. There was something in her voice, it sounded like hope.

Haruka nodded and Gou’s smile got wider. “Why do you want to know?” Haruka asked. He checked on the sun. It would be setting soon and he needed to get a few things in the convenience store before he could go home.

“Well, I needed to find a photo of my dad for a task at school and while looking in the oldest photo album I came across a picture with my parents holding two little baby boys. My mother was pregnant on the photo too,” Gou said. “My mother won’t say a thing when I confronted her about it though, but seeing as Matsuoka-senpai look a lot like me, I decided to figure out if he could be one of the babies on the photo,” Gou looked away after finishing.

Haruka was stunned for a second. This was unexpected. Here he was, about to lose everything that had ever mattered to him, and now came this girl and told him that there was a chance that she was his and Rin’s younger sister. At this moment, it felt like Haruka’s world was being turned upside down.

“I’ll see you around, Haruka-senpai,” Gou got up and waved before leaving. Haruka followed her out the school area and then went to buy the groceries they needed for the weekend.


	22. Clash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haruka confronts Rin with his feelings.

Haruka entered the apartment and dropped the groceries off in the kitchen before walking into the living room. He was surprised to see Rei already being there. He had expected to have the apartment to himself for at least another hour.

“You’re late home, Haruka,” Rei commented.

Haruka just nodded. He sat down on the couch next to Rei and Rei put the book he had been reading aside.

Haruka sighed on the inside. What was it with people wanting to talk to him today? They couldn’t just leave him be in his own low mood.

“What’s going on between you and Rin?” Rei asked as he tried to catch Haruka’s eyes and read them.

Haruka looked away, making Rei’s attempt impossible. He didn’t want to answer the question.

“Have you been fighting?” Rei placed a hand on Haruka’s shoulder, obviously being concerned.

Haruka decided he couldn’t ignore Rei’s questions and turned to him. “Rin just spends more time with his friends now,” Haruka answered.

“Aren’t you his friend?” Rei asked.

Haruka shrugged and looked away. It had always been different between him and Rin. They were more than just friends, or at least that had been the illusion.

“He sure has neglected your friendship a lot as of late,” Rei fixed his glasses and looked back at Haruka. “Maybe you should talk to him about it, and tell him that it hurts you,”

Haruka thought about that for a few seconds. Maybe that was a good idea. But there was no saying that Rin would actually listen to him.

The door opened then and Nagisa entered the apartment and yawned loudly. He looked really happy about something and both Haruka and Rei wondered what that was until Nagisa dropped down in the couch between them and grabbed a strawberry lollipop from his pocket and unwrapped the paper around it.

“Did something good happen?” Rei asked, not really sure if he wanted to know the answer. It was just that Nagisa had made such a big deal out of seeming happy that it would be impolite not to ask.

“Momo-chan is going to teach me the backstroke on Monday,” Nagisa didn’t even bother to remove the lollipop from his mouth. “And Rin-chan will teach be to get better at the butterfly!”

“I didn’t think Rin would help you with that,” Rei said and turned back to his book.

“He won’t before,” Nagisa stated. “But he also seemed distant when he promised me. I think he was busy talking to Sou-chan,”

Haruka looked at Nagisa in wonders. ‘Sou-chan’? There was no doubt he was talking about Sousuke. The thing that bothered Haruka’s mind was when Sousuke allowed him to say that.

Five minutes later Rin entered the apartment and came to the living room. He threw himself in a chair and blew out air. It sounded like he had had a hard day, and with an English exam and swimming with Sousuke for hours, Haruka understood him pretty well.

“How did English go?” Rei asked Rin though he already knew the answer.

“It was way too easy,” Rin complained. “I mean they could at least try to test me,”

“You used more than half the time we got,” Haruka commented, he looked away from everyone, so Rei and Nagisa found it difficult to hear, though Rin picked up just fine.

“You don’t have room to talk,” he said. “Ai said you used up all the time,”

“I don’t brag,” Haruka answered.

Rin’s eyes narrowed with irritation. “I’m not bragging,” he stated.

Haruka said nothing and the room fell silent for a short while.

Rin was the one who decided to break the silence again. “Haru, could I talk to you in privacy for a second?” he asked.

At that Rei decided to go for a short walk and bring a very protesting Nagisa along with him. So that Rin and Haruka were left alone in the living room to talk.

“What’s wrong, Haru?” Rin asked.

Haruka wondered how it could be so obvious that something wasn’t right. He had already lost count on how many times someone had asked him if something was wrong. Rin had even done it more than once.

Haruka took in a breath to come with a lie but was interrupted by Rin.

“No Haru, don’t lie to me,” he just said and Haruka shut his mouth again.

Haruka thought of how to put things before he started talking. “Why do you spend so much time with Yamasaki?” he asked.

“He’s a friend,” Rin said. “Why do you ask?”

“He doesn’t seem much like a friend to me,” Haruka said, not really answering Rin’s question. “You forget promises and your family. You don’t even listen to other than Yamasaki when he’s around,”

“What makes you say that I don’t listen?!” Rin almost yelled.

Haruka met Rin’s eyes. “Were you aware that you promised to watch Nagisa practice butterfly?”

“That never happened,” Rin said.

“It happened today, he told us about it when he came home,” Haruka said.

“And who is the more reliable? Nagisa or me?” Rin asked, the look in his eyes told Haruka that he thought he knew that the answer was himself, and until a few months ago, Haruka would of course have agreed.

“Normally I’d say you, but as of late, I’m starting to believe Nagisa is the more reliable,”

Rin gasped in surprise to hear those words. When did it go so wrong between the two of them? That little part had slipped his mind completely.

“Why don’t you try doing something about it?” Rin asked. “You could make your own friends for example instead of relying on me all the time,”

“I don’t,” Haruka said. “I’m fine with being alone,”

“You keep saying that,” Rin snapped. “I even tried to invite you in at Sousuke’s place to avoid being around Kisumi,” he said.

Haruka did remember that day. “Sousuke doesn’t like me,” he said.

“Prove it,” Rin said.

Haruka said nothing. He couldn’t prove it that was simple, not to Rin anyway. He had never seen the looks that Sousuke had send him and Haruka was pretty sure that half of the things that Rin had forgotten was because of Sousuke. He just couldn’t prove it.

“You don’t have an argument?” Rin asked. “Then I suggest you shut up about those statements,”

Haruka stood up. He felt a lump in his throat and something was burning in his eyes. He felt anger and sadness about all this, though it had never been this bad before.

“Ask him,” Haruka said and went to grab his swimsuit and the 4000 yen before heading out of the apartment. He knew he would’ve been in need of it soon.

Rin was still set in the living room, he was listening as Haruka walked a bit around before leaving the apartment. He had no idea where his twin was going and he wasn’t really sure he needed to find out. Haruka had been acting like a jerk. Sousuke didn’t dislike Haruka. As far as Rin could tell there was nothing in the way of a friendship between the two of them. Haruka just wanted to see things from the negative side which was something completely new to Rin.

“Damn you Haru…” he mumbled.

Haruka was wrong about everything. That was at least what Rin believed. It was not Sousuke’s fault that Rin spend so much time with him and forgot everything. It wasn’t Rin’s fault that Haruka couldn’t make friends with anyone. That one was on Haruka himself. If Haruka just knew how to make friends then things would be much easier. Then these problems won’t exist.

With these thoughts in mind, Rin went to ask Sousuke for advice in this huge conflict with Haruka that had just occurred.


	23. Time

It was a day of heavy rain in the middle of November. Haruka was walking in the weather. Since he had spent the 4000 yen about two weeks ago, this had been his only way to have contact with water. He hoped Makoto would never find out about this. He would most likely classify it as an attempt of suicide or something. Makoto had been really overprotective this passing week.

But when Haruka thought about it, most of his classmates had suffered from the issue called overprotective parents. He didn’t know the reason why though.

Haruka was currently on his way home from the convenience store, with his arms full of whatever food he had found. Among it was the desired mackerel. He wasn’t planning on letting the rest of his family have that for dinner. He had just gotten into a bad habit of eating mackerel on his own as often as he could get away with it. He had really listened to Nagisa’s kind advice about eating something he liked to cheer himself up.

A loud rumble was heard as Haruka opened the door into their building and he looked up at the nearly black sky just in time to see a lightning striking. He hoped Rin was safe somewhere inside. That being the pool or Sousuke’s place didn’t matter to Haruka.

He entered the building and went upstairs to the apartment. It didn’t surprise him that the door was unlocked. Neither did it surprise him that both Rei and Nagisa were already there. A different boy was there too. Haruka recognized him as Momotarou, Nagisa’s boy friend.

“Haruka!” Rei stood and smiled at Haruka before walking up to him and taking the groceries from his arms and carrying them to the kitchen. “Where is Rin?” he asked.

Haruka shrugged at that. Where would he know that from? “Probably with Sousuke somewhere,” he mumbled before taking off his soaking wet shoes and moving them aside. Then he headed to the kitchen to prepare the sukiyaki he had planned to make. It was a weather worth a hot pot anyway.

“What are we having tonight, Haru-chan?” Nagisa asked. He and Momotarou were sitting by the table and doing whatever a set of 14 years old boys would do these days.

Haruka decided to not answer that. Nagisa could see for himself if he wanted. For now there wasn’t really anything to do anyway. He had plenty of time before Makoto got home.

“Haru-chan!” Nagisa whined, demanding an answer.

Haruka didn’t answer the whine though and just went to do the assignment for math that he had been asked to do. He also trained a bit of English before they heard a knock on the door and Rei went to open it, letting Kisumi in. He had been by an awful lot lately. Almost every other day if Haruka’s calculations were correct.

Kisumi’s head popped into the kitchen and he looked at the groceries. “Is it Miso soup or sukiyaki?” he asked.

Haruka couldn’t refuse answering Kisumi, so he did. “Sukiyaki,” he said.

“That’s great food,” Kisumi smiled. “I assume you don’t want help,”

Haruka had never needed help for cooking. Even if he was fairly new still, he was really good with food and actually enjoyed cooking on his own. He didn’t need anyone else interrupting with this. They would just get in the way.

Rin didn’t come home for the night to have dinner with them. He was hardly ever home anymore. If he ever came home, it was only to sleep or fight with Haruka, and when they had reached climax in their arguments, he would leave to Sousuke’s place. That was how things went at the moment.

Rin did come home today, just before it was time for bed and now Haruka was lying in his own bed, listening to the rain against the window and the thunderstorm, and Rin’s soft snoring. He couldn’t seem to sleep himself. His eyes were wide open and won’t close. This had also been pretty common as of late.

All these family issues, sure were causing him a lot of trouble these days. He couldn’t sleep, couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t do anything except missing being back at Iwatobi where everything was good, and he had a happy Makoto who had time for them, a playful Nagisa who wanted nothing more but all the attention he could get, a serious Rei who thought of nothing other than his future and the obsessed Rin who could think of nothing but their rivalry, who he would constantly argue with and who would still be his best friend of all no matter what happened.

A flash of lightning lit up the entire room and Haruka’s head turned to Rin suddenly. When they had been much younger, like ten years ago or so, the two of them would cuddle up during thunderstorms like these. Rin would claim that he needed to protect Haruka against the lightning strikes. Haruka, on the other hand, knew that Rin was only clinging to him because he slightly feared the thunder and lightning. But Haruka never said a word about that, and eventually Rin grew up and was no longer afraid.

Haruka looked at the black sky through the window. It was times like these that made him feel lonely. He felt a stray tear running down his cheek and quickly wiped it away with his hand.

Rin’s soft snoring had stopped and Haruka turned to look at Rin to see if he was awake, if he needed some kind of comfort. Haruka was still worried about him. But when Haruka looked Rin’s back was turned to him and he could hear a different loud snoring.

It was obviously fake, Haruka could tell easily.

Now both twins were lying awake in the night. Both completely ignoring the other and pretending to be asleep. Many more nights like this were to come and for each night that passed one of them would feel more and more lonely, while the other would care less and less.

* * *

 

These changes between the twins were noticed at school too. Haruka would spend more time to himself than ever before and the only one who would speak to him every now and then, was Aki. Sousuke won’t care and Rin didn’t seem to care either. Ai followed Rin and Sousuke around like a loyal little puppy, but aside from that he acted like everyone else towards Haruka.

“Is something wrong between you and Matsuoka-kun?” asked Aki at lunch one day.

Haruka shrugged and took a bite of the mackerel he had brought for lunch.

“It’s just… none of you talk to each other anymore,” Aki continued.

Haruka send her a look, clearly asking what made her think so.

“It’s just… You’re both acting differently from the day when you first came here. You act like complete strangers- no that’s wrong,” she interrupted herself. “You act like the worst of enemies. What happened between you and Matsuoka-kun, Nanase-kun?” she asked.

Haruka didn’t know what to say. He thought for a while but was still stuck with nothing and ended up just shrugging again.

He watched Rin from the corner of his eye. He was laughing at something Sousuke was saying and seemed to have a great time. Ai was sitting with them too and in a distance a group of girls were staring. Judging from the direction of their gazes and their excited whispers, Haruka could tell they were all either crushing on Rin or on Sousuke, more the former than the latter.

Every now and then Rin would look over his shoulder and send the group of girls a kind smile. He was aware of their presence.

Aki sighed. She went up to Rin to speak to him about Haruka.

“Matsuoka-kun, what’s going on between you and Nanase-kun?” she asked.

Rin thought for a bit before he got a strange expression. “Between me and Haru? What do you mean Yazaki-san?”

“You’re acting different than what you did when you got here,” Aki said. “You seemed so caring about each other back then, now you’re acting like you don’t care at all,”

Rin had to think again before answering. “Haru decided to act like a selfish jerk. That’s about what happened between us. Now we just don’t talk,”

“But you’re twins,” Aki said. “You guys live together, from what I remember you said you even share the same room,”

“We don’t talk anymore,” Rin said. “That’s it, just leave it Yazaki-san. There is nothing more to it. Haru and I will ask for your help if we need it,” he finished.

Defeated like that, Aki turned around on her heel and walked back to Haruka. Rin’s and Sousuke’s fangirls were giggling like crazy. To them it just looked like Rin had turned Aki down. They didn’t understand a thing about what was really going on, and would most likely never understand.


	24. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mrs. Matsuoka runs into two interesting people.

Mrs. Matsuoka was working at a shop where you could usually buy fish. Truth be told, she actually owned the shop. She shared an apartment with her only daughter – Matsuoka Gou – right upstairs from the shop. Speaking of which, Gou was supposed to be home early today. Mrs. Matsuoka had decided that they needed new lamps for the living room and she wanted Gou to help pick them out. She figured at the age of 14 you would be just about old enough to help out with such things.

Right then the bell started ringing, signaling to Mrs. Matsuoka that she had costumers. She was alone in the shop today so it was important to come and help out.

When she first entered the shop, she thought she saw her beloved daughter hanging out with a boy a little older than herself. But after blinking a couple of times, she realized the one that looked like her daughter had way too short hair, was way too tall and had a way too flat chest. It was obviously a male. He just happened to look like Gou and this stunned Mrs. Matsuoka for quite a bit.

“Hello, Matsuoka-san,” Sousuke said. He and his family were regular costumers in the shop, just like most from the local area.

“Oh yes, Yamasaki-kun. Welcome,” she smiled. “Who’s your friend?” she asked kindly.

“This is Tachibana Rin, he moved in right next to us and we are in the same class,” Sousuke said. Rin had chosen to go by his formal surname since it would lessen confusion. Sousuke had informed him that the woman owning the shop was named Matsuoka as well and was Gou’s mother.

“Welcome Tachibana-kun,” Mrs. Matsuoka said.

“Thank you,” Rin answered politely.

“What can I do for you boys today?” Mrs. Matsuoka asked.

Sousuke looked around. “My mother has requested some fish for tonight. She says it has to be the one she got last time she was here. She couldn’t recall the name though,” he said.

Mrs. Matsuoka remembered the last time Mrs. Yamasaki had been there. She had wanted to try out some new fish and Mrs. Matsuoka had given her something a little out of the ordinary. It seemed she had liked the choice.

Mrs. Matsuoka went and found the requested fish and wrapped it up in paper for Sousuke before handing it to him. “It’ll be 600 yen,” she said.

Sousuke paid and turned to Rin. “Matsuoka-san has just about the best fish in the area,” he said. “When she and her husband first opened the shop, he would go catch the fish for her, that’s at least what I’ve heard, but around 15 years ago, he left for some reason and Matsuoka-san nearly lost the shop, but now so many fishermen help her out. She has some of the freshest fish here,” he said.

Rin got a thoughtful expression on his face as he turned away from Sousuke. Mrs. Matsuoka wondered what he was thinking about, but it was none of her business.

“Thinking about if he know of this place?” Sousuke asked.

“Yeah,” Rin answered.

“You could tell him?” the brown haired boy suggested.

Rin shrugged. “Not before he apologizes for all he has said and done,” he answered. An irritated expression appeared on the boy’s face.

“We’ll see you, Matsuoka-san,” Sousuke said to Mrs. Matsuoka before leaving the shop, with Rin in toe.

Mrs. Matsuoka didn’t have to wait much longer after that before another person with maroon hair entered the shop, though this time it was a girl.

“Shall we go?” Mrs. Matsuoka asked her daughter and Gou nodded.

“Let’s get going,” she said.

The two female went to the nearest shopping district and into the shop where you could buy the best lamps in the area. They had the same taste in design and therefore it was quickly decided what lamps they would get. Since they had been so quick, they decided to go take a look around to see if there was something else they needed.

The air was cold. It was just at the beginning of December and some people had started thinking about Christmas presents. Mrs. Matsuoka hadn’t thought about it yet though. She had too much to do, to think about Christmas too much.

Gou would usually give her a present for Christmas, but Mrs. Matsuoka couldn’t remember the last time she had given her daughter something for the holiday. She wouldn’t know what to give the girl either. She was so unpredictable.

They ended up outside a shop looking at scarves. Gou had found a beautiful soft one in white with light gray stripes. She was just suggesting buying this for Mrs. Matsuoka for Christmas when she noticed someone behind her mother.

“Haruka-senpai!” she called and let go of the scarf.

Mrs. Matsuoka turned her head as her daughter went by her and up to a boy with black hair, looking at a white and blue scarf. He looked up when Gou ran up to him.

“Haruka-senpai, have you looked for those papers?” she asked.

The boy – Haruka – got a thoughtful expression on his face, like he needed to struggle to remember what she was talking about. Then he shook his head.

“Have you even looked?” Gou asked reproachfully.

“No,” Haruka said honestly.

It just hit Mrs. Matsuoka that Haruka was a really strange name for a boy. It was ordinary for a girl, but for a boy to have this name was something you’d rarely see, even in a city as full of people as Tokyo. She wondered where Gou would know this boy from.

“Why? I told you to do it,” Gou stated and Haruka chose to fixate his gaze on the scarf he was still holding in his hands.

“I’ve had a lot on my mind,” he said.

“Does the fact that I don’t see you and Rin together anymore have something to do with it?” she asked.

Haruka shrugged. “Maybe,” he said.

“Oh, mom,” Gou turned to her mother who had been watching the teens this whole time. “I’d like to introduce you to Nanase Haruka who is Nagisa-kun’s older brother,”

Mrs. Matsuoka did remember Hazuki Nagisa. He was another boy that had appeared in Gou’s usual group of friends after the summer break. He said that he had moved to Tokyo around that time. She had brought all of them over one time when she needed to pick up something and Nagisa had been all over the place, checking out everything he could get to. Mrs. Matsuoka had had to stop him before he and Momotarou had been in the drawers holding their underwear. Haruka seemed completely different from that. Were those two even biologically related? Somehow Mrs. Matsuoka refused to believe that.

“You aren’t biologically related to Hazuki-kun, are you?” she asked.

“No,” Haruka said. “We were both adopted by the same man, that’s all,”

Then Mrs. Matsuoka remembered that she had forgotten to introduce herself and quickly did that. Haruka’s face stayed expressionless all the way through as Gou kept on complaining about how he had broken a promise about looking for papers at home.

“But what are you even doing here, Haruka-senpai?” Gou asked curiously, changing topic quicker than the weather in the mountains.

“Buying a gift,” Haruka said.

“Is it a Christmas present for Rin?” Gou asked curiously.

“No, it’s for my third brother, Rei,” Haruka said. “His birthday is coming up,” he explained.

“Ryugasaki-senpai?” Gou asked.

Haruka nodded.

“Well, wish him a happy birthday from me,” Gou said. “Remember to look for those papers too, Haruka-senpai,” she said.

Haruka nodded. His face was still expressionless.

Gou turned back to her mother who was thinking as she watched Haruka leave them. He had reminded her of someone but right now she couldn’t remember who it was. Maybe one of her employers or maybe even one of the fishermen… Suddenly it hit her like a rock. She remembered who this boy reminded her of. The one person she had tried to forget the most, and almost had.

She wondered if her ex-husband would always haunt her memories


	25. Decition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens when Haruka has had enough.

It was on the day before New Year’s Eve. Haruka was preparing their meal in the kitchen while Nagisa had invited Rin, along with Sousuke, to play the new video game he got for Christmas. He had also asked Haruka and Rei, but Haruka needed to cook, and Rei found his new book extremely interesting. It was a theory book of something or another that Haruka didn’t really care about.

“I’m gonna win this one, Sousuke,” Rin said. He was really getting into the game.

“Oh no you don’t,” Sousuke said a bit more calmly than Rin was, but Haruka could also tell that he was into the game.

Nagisa came out in the kitchen, surprising Haruka who had thought he too was playing that video game with Rin and Sousuke.

“I gave up,” Nagisa said. “They’re too good,” he sat on a chair and watched as Haruka cut some vegetables. He didn’t bother commenting on Nagisa’s words. He didn’t need help talking.

Just then Haruka’s phone started ringing and he picked it up, looking at the caller ID to see that it was Makoto calling. He hadn’t expected it to be anyone else on a day like this.

“Hey Haru,” Makoto said in the other end.

“What is it?” Haruka asked.

“I just wanted to inform you that Kisumi will be spending New Years with us this year,” Haruka nodded. Why didn’t this surprise him very much? It was irritating though. He had hoped he wouldn’t have to see Kisumi on New Year’s Eve.

“And the meal for the night?” Haruka asked.

“Just prepare for one more if possible,” Makoto answered. “By the way, I’ll be working until some time past midnight tonight,” he continued. “Be sure to go to bed early or you’ll all be falling asleep tomorrow,” he warned kindly.

“We will,” Haruka answered.

“Where is Rin?” Makoto then asked. “I’d like to speak to him,”

Haruka wished Makoto had just called Rin then if he wanted to speak to him, but he didn’t let it show when he answered. “He’s in the living room,” he said while walking there. He reached out with the phone, letting that be enough to let Rin know that someone needed to talk to him, and Rin accepted the device and raised it to his ear.

“Hi Makoto,” he said.

Haruka paid the conversation no more mind and ended up looking at Sousuke who simply just glared at him. It felt like his eyes were trying to stab Haruka.

“Yeah, okay,” Rin said “I’ll be sure to remember it next time,” he said. “Thanks for taking care of it,”

Now Haruka knew what they were talking about. Yesterday Rin had come home and forgotten to hang his swimsuit out for drying and so Haruka had done it instead. Makoto had apparently noticed this and made Rin aware of the fact.

“I’ll do that,” Rin said. “See you tomorrow,” he finished before hanging up and handing the phone back to Haruka.

Haruka took it and looked at the game that Nagisa had got. He hadn’t had a chance to play it yet and he kinda wanted to. Seeing how Sousuke and Rin tied for first place didn’t help him very much. He sat down and grabbed the third controller.

“I’m in on the next one,” he said.

Rin nodded and when he and Sousuke finished they started a new game and added a third player. It was some kind of racing game. Haruka had played those kinds of things before so he knew how things worked. The game started and Rin and Sousuke once again tied for first place while Haruka was lying somewhere behind them, though Haruka decided to speed up and somehow managed to get past the two ahead of him.

“So about tomorrow,” Sousuke started a conversation with Rin. “Have you decided on what you’re gonna do?” he asked.

“There is a 99 percent chance that Kisu-mi will be over here for New Years,” Rin sand. “So, I might just accept your offer and have it at yours,” he said.

Haruka nearly dropped the controller at this point. He couldn’t believe he would have to spend New Years without Rin. That had always been unthinkable and it still seemed that way. He couldn’t believe it. He refused to believe it. Though he didn’t let any of his thoughts show. He knew that Sousuke had intentionally mentioned this as he would fall behind. But to Haruka, it had the opposite effect.

He started speeding up and went even faster than before. The surroundings seemed kinda blurry to him as he went forward and closed in on the finish line. He crossed it when the others still had a long way to go and went to the kitchen to continue preparations.

If Rin wasn’t going to spend New Year’s Eve at home, then neither would Haruka.

* * *

 

Haruka was up early the following morning. And with early it was actually around 8 or something. Makoto had been up even earlier to go to work again. The others were still sleeping though.

Haruka made sure to stay as silent as possible as he pulled on his swimsuit for underwear and a pair of jeans over them. He got fully dressed before heading to the kitchen. He grabbed a few riceballs from last night’s dinner and headed out, with them as his only breakfast.

Determination was painted on Haruka’s face, if you could say that. He silently closed the door behind him to not wake up anyone and then headed down the stairs to the street.

There was no snow here at the moment, just rain. Tokyo was a soaking wet, gray place to look at from the streets in winter. Haruka missed Iwatobi so badly. He missed everything as it had been just last New Year. He missed how he and Rin would fight over silly things, but always know to make up before midnight. Right now he couldn’t remember the last time he even spoke to Rin unless it was an argument.

He also missed how Makoto had time for them. He missed Makoto’s kind smile, which he hardly got to see anymore, since Makoto was working so hard he was hardly ever home and really stressed out whenever he was, and if he wasn’t stressed out he was either tired or asleep.

He missed how they would celebrate New Year’s Eve, just the Tachibana family. Sometimes Makoto’s younger siblings would be over, sometimes it would be his parents who came to visit, or the family would go visit them. They would never have friends staying for New Years, no matter how close they were. It was what Makoto used to call a ‘family thing’ and Haruka had kinda liked the thought of that.

He got on the train station and on the first train heading to the central station. It didn’t take him long to find out where to go and buy a ticket. He even managed to eat a riceball on the way.

As the time for the train to leave was nearing, Haruka hurried more and bumped into someone on the way. He thought he heard them yelling but didn’t stop to see if they were or not. He had a train to catch.

And so he didn’t notice as Shigino Kisumi got the cell phone out of his pocket and called someone.


	26. Retrieve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto realizes that he has something he needs to do.

Makoto had just headed into one of the rooms where you could rest up for a bit when he felt his phone buzzing. It wasn’t with that special tone that indicated a family member so he couldn’t figure out who would call him like this. He didn’t have many friends in Tokyo and the only one who would call him was Kisumi, who most likely didn’t have the time at the moment, and knew he was working.

He picked it up without looking at the caller ID, it was something he never did. “Hello, Tachibana Makoto speaking,” he said.

“Makoto, do you know where your kid is right now?” it was Kisumi and this went beyond Makoto’s expectations and what was with that question. Wasn’t it really odd?

“No matter which one of them, they’re hopefully at home,” Makoto answered.

“No, he’s not,” Kisumi said. “Listen I just saw Haruka at the central station-“ Makoto didn’t let him speak further.

“You did what!” the sound level of his voice was ricing by each word. “What was he doing there? Where was he heading?”

“I can’t answer the first question,” Kisumi said. “But he was heading towards the trains going out of town and he was in a hurry,”

What in the world? Makoto didn’t understand at all. What did Haruka think he was doing? “Where is the next train heading?” he asked, he had now managed to calm himself down.

Kisumi mentioned the final station and Makoto thought back. He wondered why Haruka would be heading there until it suddenly came to him. The train heading there would stop at the station closest to Iwatobi. There would be a direct line from that station to Iwatobi.

“Are you absolutely sure it was Haru?” Makoto asked.

“Not completely…” Kisumi admitted. “I saw his black short hair and thought I recognized the coat and scarf, but that’s all,”

“What about his eyes?” Makoto asked.

Kisumi said nothing for about 20 seconds, to Makoto it felt more like 20 minutes though. “I think I caught a glimpse of something blue…” he finally said. “Clear blue, almost like water,” he described further.

There was no doubt in Makoto’s mind. It couldn’t be anyone other than Haruka. How many boys would wear clothes that Kisumi might have seen before at Makoto’s place, have black hair and that kind of blue eyes? Especially the eye color was a special trademark of Haruka.

“Kisumi, when does the next train heading towards Iwatobi leaves?”

“In about three hours,” Kisumi answered immediately. He had obviously expected Makoto to ask that question.

“Okay then I’ll just-“ Makoto was now the one to be cut off by Kisumi.

“No, I’m heading towards the hospital in my car right now, you take that and head to Iwatobi. I’ll go to your place and look out for the others for the night,” he said. “You just take your time,”

Makoto smiled. “Thanks a lot… Kisumi.”

 

10 and half a minute later Makoto was standing at the parking lot in front of the hospital and watched as Kisumi’s extremely expensive car pulled up in front of him and his friend stepped out of the cars driving seat.

“Thanks a lot,” Makoto repeated as he headed over and hugged Kisumi quickly before sitting in the drivers seat. Kisumi held the door open and looked down at Makoto.

“There is something… I guess you should know before you leave,” Kisumi said.

“What’s that?” Makoto said.

Kisumi hesitated for a few seconds before speaking up. “I… Ever since we started seeing each other again I haven’t been treating all your kids fairly. In fact… I’ve actually been pretty mean towards Haruka. I ignore him from time to time and intentionally take his jobs from him,”

Makoto was shocked to hear this. He hadn’t even noticed all this. “Why?” he asked.

Kisumi looked away with a distant look in his eyes. “I guess… I was a bit jealous of him,” he said. “I felt like he was filling in for me, taking my place in your heart and therefore I felt like I had the right… if that’s the right way to put it,”

“How do you feel about it now?” Makoto asked and Kisumi met his eyes when answering.

“Terrible. I do realize that this is not the case. You do have room for both of us, at least I’m sure that’s what you would’ve said if I had confronted you with this beforehand,” Kisumi said. “I’m really sorry,”

Makoto nodded. “I forgive you, but if you tell Rei, Rin and Nagisa, I’m not sure they’re willing to forgive you as easily,” he said.

Kisumi laughed. “I haven’t got a death wish,” he assured.

Makoto smiled. “I hope not,” he said before shutting the door and driving towards his hometown.

Makoto did have driving license. He just never really felt like owning a car. He used to borrow his parents’ car whenever he was in need in his younger days and then used public transportation for the rest.

As he drove, he started reflecting on what could’ve made Haruka do something as drastic as running away from home without saying a word to anyone, and then on the day of New Year’s Eve of all days. Makoto had always kept this day a family-thing and usually didn’t let friends come join them, but Kisumi was different. There had been a time when he and Makoto had been as close as brothers and Makoto couldn’t seem to shake that feeling off of him.

This was something he had never made Haruka and Rin aware of and that could be why Haruka had simply misunderstood the whole thing. Besides it did seem like Kisumi hadn’t been the only one feeling negatively about getting to know the twins. Makoto had had the feeling that neither Rin nor Haruka had liked Kisumi, from the very first day. And things hadn’t exactly gone better when Rin started heading over to Sousuke’s place every time Kisumi came by.

Speaking of Rin, Makoto had barely even seen the older twin these past three months, ever since the exams. He wondered if something had happened between Rin and Haruka. He wondered when the last time he had seen them together was. The first memory he got, was back at Iwatobi, two weeks before they moved when Haruka had been out in the garden, drawing something. A sakura tree if Makoto remembered correctly. It had also been the day when Makoto had told them that they would move to Tokyo.

After they came to Tokyo, Makoto had never really spent much time with his family. It was something he had always been painfully aware of. He only saw them on Sundays and at nights, though nights wasn’t really the best time since he was always so exhausted he barely managed to speak. He would pretend to listen whenever Nagisa had something to talk about, but he’d got the feeling that Nagisa had become aware that he didn’t actually pay attention, because he had almost stopped doing that. At least on nights on weekdays. Sunday was usually a different story. On Sundays Nagisa would behave almost like he did when they lived back at Iwatobi.

Makoto supposed that he knew how Haruka felt and why he wanted to go back. He too was longing for a time when things were easier and much different from what they were now.

The drive took just about five hours and Makoto had to stop once or twice and turn back around because his sense of direction had gotten messed up. He wasn’t used to drive to Iwatobi like this. He had done it with his family from time to time, but he didn’t remember all of the way.

Finally he pulled up by the stairs, leading to their old house. He went up the stairs and checked the area. There were people inside the house, but Haruka wasn’t among them. Makoto hadn’t expected that to be the case either.

He turned around and walked back down the stairs as he thought of where else Haruka could have gone. He was almost certain that he was here in Iwatobi. If he would run away from home, this was where he would go, Makoto was more than 100 percent certain of that.

The realization of where Haruka was was so obvious that Makoto couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it, when it suddenly hit him. Haruka hadn’t been out swimming since just before the exams, so there had really only been one place for him to go.


	27. Nightfall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto and Haruka talk about serious stuff.

Makoto decided to walk the short distance to the school that he had had his four boys attend, and which he had also attended himself when he was younger. He wasted no time looking allover campus. He went straight to the pool area where he was certain to find Haruka.

He was right. He could see the young boy standing by the poolside, looking down into the empty hole. It was winter. Of course the pool had been emptied out.

“I knew I’d find you here,” Makoto said as he approached Haruka.

The black-haired boy turned around. He hadn’t expected to see Makoto here, and certainly not so soon. “How did you know I was here?” Makoto read in Haruka’s eyes.

“Kisumi told me that he spotted you on the station,” Makoto said. “He also lend me his car to get here faster,”

Haruka nodded. He had only been here for about an hour or so, it wasn’t unlikely. Though he really felt angry with Kisumi.

“He told me what had happened,” Makoto continued. “Between you and him,”

Haruka just nodded plainly.

“Would you like to talk about it?” Makoto asked.

Haruka shrugged. He didn’t care if they were to talk about it or not, to him it didn’t really matter what they did.

Makoto sat down by the poolside and signaled to Haruka to sit down beside him. Haruka did so with no protests. He didn’t feel like doing that.

“He was actually just jealous of you,” Makoto explained Kisumi’s behavior.

Haruka nodded. He hadn’t been aware of this, but it didn’t exactly surprise him either. Things started adding up when it was put like that.

“I guess he regrets his actions,” Makoto said.

Haruka nodded. “He should speak of that himself,” he said.

Makoto nodded in response. Normally he would insist on that too. “Will you listen and accept an apology from him?” he asked.

Haruka thought about that one for a bit, before nodding. “I might,” was the answer.

Makoto smiled, knowing that he couldn’t get any clearer answer out of the teen.

They sat in silence for a while. The wind was blowing coldly and the sky was getting darker by each second. Night was falling upon Iwatobi. Makoto felt like they should go, but in the same time he felt like he should talk things out with Haruka before then, and while they had been talking about the problem at hand, he had a feeling he had only uncovered the top of the iceberg.

A light snow started falling and when Makoto breathed out he could see his own breath like a white cloud right in front of him. He really wanted to get going, but didn’t know how to get started on the rest.

“You want to talk some more…” Haruka mumbled. It wasn’t a question. It was just a small simple statement of fact.

“Something else is wrong, isn’t it?” Makoto asked.

Haruka just shrugged, not knowing what else to do. He won’t lie to Makoto, but he didn’t want to tell what was wrong either. The problems he had with Rin were his own problems and nothing else. Therefore he started thinking of other topics to turn up.

“What else is the matter?” The expected question was now asked.

“I just… I wish we could go back,” Haruka said as he looked down to the bottom of the pool, which was slowly being covered in white snowflakes.

“Don’t you like it in Tokyo?” Makoto asked concerned.

“Not really…” Haruka mumbled.

“But you have friends?”

Haruka nodded.

“Then what’s wrong?” Makoto asked, leaning a tiny bit closer to the teen.

Haruka thought of what to say next, to avoid getting on the sore topic, Rin.

“We are hardly together as a family anymore,” He said.

Makoto nodded. “You’re right, I’m aware of that too,” he said.

Haruka nodded. If it wasn’t hearable in Makoto’s voice, he’d known all along. Makoto had always held his family so dear and now he couldn’t spend any time with them without being exhausted.

“What are you going to do about it?” Haruka asked.

Makoto thought for a bit. “I’m not sure there’s anything I can do,” he answered. “I mean, I need to work this hard to earn for a living for the five of us,” he said.

Haruka nodded in silence and said nothing as he let his mind drift. Maybe if he really was related to Gou somehow, then he could move out and lighten Makoto’s load. But he won’t dare mentioning that. He really loved living with Makoto and felt more at home there than anywhere else.

“What are you thinking about?” Makoto asked, aware that Haruka was thinking of something a bit difficult.

“Just…” Haruka trailed off. “One of Nagisa’s friends thinks that Rin and I might be her brothers,” he answered.

Makoto froze. He had thought of what to do when a day like this would come, but never taken the thoughts further than to that it would most likely never come.

“Do you believe her?” he asked.

“Her looks reminds me of Rin,” Haruka answered, letting that being answer enough.

Makoto tried to picture that. A female version of Rin was kinda difficult for him to picture because he had never met Gou.

“On top of that her surname is Matsuoka,” Haruka continued.

This completely convinced Makoto that this girl could very well be part of Rins and Haruka’s family. He was at a loss of what to do though, at least at the moment.

“If they are your family, would you rather live with them?” Makoto finally pulled himself together enough to ask this question.

Haruka had to think for a while. Did he wish for that or did he not? He loved Makoto and the little family that he had gathered, but in the same time he wanted to get away because nothing was like it used to be, nothing was the same as when Haruka first learned to love this family concept. But as mentioned earlier, this was where he felt at home the most no matter what.

“No,” he answered. “I won’t… so far anyway,” he said.

Makoto nodded. He was happy to hear that answer, but he still tried to hide this fact. He only hoped Haruka had chosen this out of his own free will rather than of how he feared everyone else would react. On the other hand, the latter was more of a personality trade for Makoto, and not as much for Haruka. He believed in the free mind. Of course it would be the former.

The two fell silence once more and just sat still for half an hour longer, watching the snowflakes fall and feeling how the temperature dropped. Makoto looked to Haruka once and realized the boy was shivering with cold. He hadn’t even been dressed properly for the weather. Makoto knew that the coat the teen was wearing was pretty old. He bought it about two winters ago, and so it was now thin and let the cold in here and there. He had intended to buy the boy a new coat before this winter got started, but so far he either hadn’t had the time or completely forgotten about it before he had a chance to do something about it.

“We should get going,” Makoto finally said. “There is a heating system in Kisumi’s car, besides the others are waiting for us at home,” he said.

Haruka nodded and got up, following Makoto back to where the car was parked. He sat in the passenger seat and Makoto sat in the driver seat and started driving towards Tokyo as he turned on the heat in the car.

“Remind me, I need to buy all of you boys new coats sometime soon,” Makoto said as they left Iwatobi.

Haruka just nodded. His head was leaned against the window and he was already half asleep. Today had been a really exhausting day for him. He had run away from home after a night with way too little sleep, then he had been traveling all on his own for the very first time in his life, nearly got lost when he arrived at Iwatobi and then he had been sitting by the poolside and frozen for about one and half an hour until Makoto had decided that they had to head home.

Makoto noticed as Haruka fell asleep. He understood how hard things must’ve been on him. He felt sorry that things had to go this far before anyone took action. He felt like a really bad parent. But he couldn’t undo the past, he knew that as well as everyone else. No matter how hard he tried, the past would always stay the same. All he could do was make the future better.

“Just rest, Haru,” he mumbled at the sleeping boy in the seat next to him as he kept on driving in the dark night.


	28. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto and Haruka come home to celebrate New Year.

The clock had passed 10 already when Makoto pulled up by the building where the apartment was. Haruka had awoken once more and was now staring out at the dark streets of Tokyo with sleepy eyes. He had woken up a couple of times during the ride and he and Makoto would talk for a bit about everything and anything. Though he had fallen asleep again after a short while.

“Haru?” Makoto asked to ensure he was awake.

Haruka just nodded in response and undid his seatbelt before getting out of the car. Makoto followed and made sure to lock the expensive transportation way, before heading into the building and up the stairs with Haruka in toe.

When they entered the apartment, they could hear a loud cheer and a blonde lightning came towards them with full speed.

Haruka found himself with the blonde bomb – Nagisa – in his arms. The younger boy was sobbing and crying tears of joy as he leaned close to Haruka’s chest.

“Haru-chan…” he mumbled. “Don’t ever leave again!” He hugged Haruka even tighter as Rei also came up to them in a more decent speed.

“Welcome back,” he said, both to Haruka and Makoto.

“Thanks Rei,” Makoto said. “Where’s Rin?”

Rei looked at the door behind Haruka. “He’s with Yamasaki-kun,” he said.

“I don’t know about you guys but it seems he is with that Yamasaki kid a lot,” Kisumi said. He had also come up to them and was now watching Haruka carefully.

“I may not be home much, but I think you’re right,” Makoto answered in a serious tone. “Is there any dinner left?” he then asked.

Rei was the one who nodded. “We’ve saved some for both of you,” he said.

“Thanks,” Makoto said and then he led Haruka to the kitchen. They sat down and ate in silence while everyone else just watched. Kisumi and Makoto didn’t exchange many words, until Makoto stood and told Kisumi to come with him for a minute.

The two men went into Makoto’s room and Makoto closed the door behind them.

“What did Haruka say… when you told him my reasoning?” Kisumi asked slightly nervous about the answer.

“He said that he wanted you to apologize for yourself,” Makoto answered. “I’m not sure I really follow that, but if you understand, then you know what to do,”

Kisumi nodded. He did understand that. “I’ll just speak to him then,” he said plainly.

“Good,” Makoto smiled. “Thanks for looking out for Rei and Nagisa for me,”

“No trouble,” Kisumi said.

Makoto smiled as he led the way back out of the bedroom and headed back to the others. Kisumi knew he had something to do but he couldn’t seem to pull himself together enough to actually start the conversation with the boy before him.

Makoto was the one who had to pull the strings.

“Nagisa, Rei, since Haru needs a rest, maybe the two of you could help me wash up?” he suggested.

Nagisa pouted at first, but with a determined glare from Makoto he ended up nodding his head, though it was obvious that he didn’t want to do this. Rei didn’t need further prompting. He nodded his head willingly as soon as the words had left Makoto’s mouth.

“Let’s go into the living room as we don’t get in the way,” Kisumi suggested while looking at Haruka.

Haruka just nodded and followed Kisumi to the living room where the two of them sat down and silence quickly fell upon them.

“I…” Kisumi trailed off. “Haruka, I’d like to apologize for my actions. You see, ever since I met you and Rin I got jealous of you, and as time passed it became worse, especially towards you, because I felt like you had taken up my place in Makoto’s life,” he explained. It seemed as soon as he got started he would like to get everything out, and Haruka just sat in a polite silence until the man had finished.

“I might as well apologize too,” he said when Kisumi had finished. “Rin and I didn’t like the idea of Makoto having a friend we didn’t know about, and so we took a disliking towards you before we even met,” Haruka said.

“That’s what all the whispering that night was about,” Kisumi interrupted. He finally understood. “How do you feel about me now?” Kisumi asked then.

Haruka thought. “I like you better than at first,” Haruka said. Kisumi knew that this didn’t mean he was liked at all. But it was a change for the better. “You are just a friend of Makoto’s and both Rin and I should learn to accept that,” Haruka continued.

“And you’re his adopted children, and you mean a lot to him, just as much as I know he means a lot to you. He means a lot to me too,” Kisumi said. He smiled at Haruka.

Haruka nodded. He knew of that. It was easy to tell, also seeing as Kisumi had lend Makoto his car for such a long time and even called Makoto as soon as he had spotted Haruka on the central station. It was clear that Kisumi and Makoto were really close when Kisumi would do so much to help Makoto save what was the most important to him.

“Haru-chan,” Nagisa popped his head into the living room. “You and Kisu-chan want desert?” he asked.

Haruka nodded.

“Oh yeah,” Kisumi turned to Haruka. “I never got to thank you, the meal was really great,” he said.

Haruka nodded in return. He wasn’t really the type to go with the polite ‘I’m glad you think so’ phrase. He would usually just accept a compliment with a nod or something like that.

They ate the desert in the living room and then waited for the clock to strike 12. After that everyone but Makoto stayed up to play an old board game. As far as Haruka understood, the last time they had played this game was at Nagisa’s 6th birthday.

“It’s fun getting together like this again,” Kisumi smiled across the table at everyone.

“Yeah,” Rei said. He smiled back at Kisumi.

Nagisa nodded while stuffing his face with candy and Haruka didn’t even smile. He felt kinda outside of it all.

“Sorry Nagisa, three spaces back,” Kisumi said as he finished his turn.

Nagisa pouted but moved his man three spaces. However he moved it in the wrong direction.

“Nagisa that’s cheating,” Rei said. “You just moved it three spaces forward!”

Nagisa shook his head, insisting that he had done it right. He even went as far as to complain when Haruka moved the man six spaces back, the first three to cover up for those he moved forward, and the following three for those he originally were supposed to move back.

Kisumi laughed. “I see you’re still thinking as childish as ever Nagisa.

“I was just trying!” Nagisa yelled.

They played for a while longer until Nagisa could no longer contain his yawns and decided that it was about time he went to bed. He wanted to stay up longer but Rei encouraged him to go to bed too, and so that was what he ended up doing.

The three others did the same too. There was another day tomorrow after all and they were tired themselves too.

“Goodnight Rei, Goodnight Haruka,” Kisumi said as he headed back to the living room, where he would be sleeping on the couch.

“Goodnight Kisumi,” Rei said. “Sleep well,”

“You too Rei,”

“Goodnight Kisumi…” Haruka said before disappearing into his own room, which he yet again had all to himself.

The empty dark room was a painful reminder of how Haruka still had lost Rin. Despite now getting the sensation of having a family back, he still had no brother, at least not really. Their friendship had been crumbling ever since they got to Tokyo and it didn’t seem like it was gonna get stronger any time soon, in fact it felt like they were getting more and more distant for each passing day. Haruka only wished that doing something about that was as easy as it had been with Kisumi and Makoto.


	29. Documents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> About how Gou's research progresses a bit.

It was now around the middle of February and so far nothing had really changed. At least not as far as Haruka had noticed. Kisumi would still come by on a regular basis. Sometimes Makoto would be there too, other times he would just be there without. Especially these past few days he had been over a lot. But the reason for that was that Nagisa had got the flue and everyone else was too busy to look after him.

Rin was still spending as little time home as possible in order to avoid Kisumi as much as possible, however as much as Kisumi was at their place for the time being, it was hard not to run into him eventually, and therefore Rin hadn’t been able to avoid him completely.

Haruka had learned to accept Kisumi being there and didn’t mind him anymore, however their relationship still wasn’t that well. Of course they could talk and all, but Haruka knew that Kisumi would never understand him as well as Makoto did.

Things weren’t going any better at school it seemed. Aki was about the only one who ever bothered speaking to Haruka. Not even Aiichirou bothered to do so anymore. Haruka didn’t really mind that either. He did find the boy slightly annoying as much as he looked up at everyone.

“Nanase-kun,” It was Aki speaking to him now. “Nanase-kun, classes are over,” she informed.

Haruka blinked. He hadn’t even been paying attention to class because he had been reflecting over what had happened since New Year’s.

“I’ll be off,” Aki said before grabbing her bag. “See you tomorrow,” she smiled happily as she wrapped her white scarf around her neck and prepared to leave.

“See you, Yazaki-san,” Haruka said. It was the first time in months he had spoken to anyone at school.

Aki stopped half way through a step. Haruka’s response had surprised her. She had gotten so used to him not responding that she was surprised to hear his voice again. “I’m glad to hear your voice again,” she finally said before leaving. She was unable to wipe a soft smile off her face as she exited the building.

Haruka got up and started gathering his own things. He purposely made himself slow as he could avoid the rush of students leaving the building.

He exited the school building as one of the last ones, not really paying attention to his surroundings. That’s why he didn’t notice the group of three 8th graders before one of them grabbed his arm.

“Haruka-senpai,” It was Gou who had stopped him and he looked at her, surprised that she would take contact to him out of nowhere like this. “Haruka-senpai, where are those documents?” Gou asked.

“At home,” Haruka said immediately catching on. She was still going at that.

“Could I go with you now and get them?” she asked. “Hana-chan and Momotarou-kun would like to come along too and say hi to Nagisa-kun,” She said. “He’s sick isn’t he?” she continued.

“The flue,” Haruka just answered.

“Poor Nagisa-kun,” Chigusa mumbled.

Haruka therefore ended up walking home with Nagisa’s friends in toe, which was something he hadn’t expected. Nobody else was home except Nagisa and Kisumi.

“Haruka-kun,” Kisumi called from the living room. “Do you mind making some tea for Nagisa?”

Haruka went to the kitchen and prepared to make tea. He didn’t feel like answering because Kisumi knew that he’d go do it no matter what anyway. It wasn’t like he minded either.

“Who have you brought with you?” Kisumi asked as he noticed the group with Haruka.

“Some of Nagisa’s friends,” Haruka said. “They wanted to see him,”

“Welcome then,” Kisumi smiled at the two girls and the boy. “I’m Shigino Kisumi, it’s nice to meet you,”

“I’m Matsuoka Gou,” Gou said. “That’s Hanamura Chigusa and Mikoshiba Momotarou,” she presented her friends. “We’re all in Nagisa-kun’s class,”

“Nice to meet you, Shigino-san,” Chigusa said and Momotarou repeated her words.

Haruka finished making the tea and walked to Nagisa’s bedroom with it. The three 8th graders followed him.

“Hey Haru-chan,” Nagisa said before he noticed the rest of them. “Momo-chan! Hana-chan! Gou-chan!” he smiled.

“How are you?” Gou asked, she and Chigusa sat down in a short distance from Nagisa’s bed while Momotarou stood right next to it as Haruka served tea.

“Been better,” Nagisa said honestly. “What tea is it?”

“Not strawberry,” was Haruka’s answer.

Nagisa pouted at that, but he knew he wouldn’t get a different tea. He knew Haruka made things thinking more about the health of people than what they preferred, unlike Makoto and Rei.

Haruka went to the living room to just sit and let his mind drift while the four 8th graders were left to themselves for a while.

It was about ten minutes later when Gou came out alone and went into the living room to speak to Haruka.

“Where are those documents?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Haruka said.

Gou let out a sigh of annoyance and went to look in the first drawer she could find. Haruka went and helped her out, seeing as he won’t like to know the consequences if he didn’t.

They found nothing and went on to the next drawer and when they found that it didn’t have anything useful either they moved on to the next one.

“What are you two looking for?” Kisumi stood in the door to the living room. He had been standing there for a while and Haruka had been aware of it, however judging from the jump that Gou made she hadn’t been aware of his presence.

“Uh… eh… Nothing?” Gou said in a feverish tone as she turned to Kisumi.

“Documents of when Rin and I were brought to the orphanage,” Haruka said.

“Does Makoto still keep those?” Kisumi asked.

Haruka just nodded.

“What do you need it for?” Kisumi looked slightly suspicious. “You aren’t planning on running away again or something are you?” his purple eyes fixated on Haruka, slightly narrowed. He got an unusual, strict look on his face.

“No,” Haruka said.

“I have my suspense that Matsuoka-senpai, Haruka-senpai and I might be related by blood,” Gou explained. “I need information from the documents to check it,” she said.

Kisumi nodded. “I see, I’ll help you guys look then,”

They spend the rest of the afternoon looking, but no matter how hard they tried they couldn’t even find a clue as to where the documents could be and around 6 a disappointed Gou had to leave the apartment along with her friends as Haruka could get started on cooking.

Kisumi informed Makoto about the search by the table that night, and Makoto blinked surprised.

“Matsuoka-kun is really serious about this isn’t she?” he asked. ¨

Kisumi nodded. “So it seems,”

“Have you looked in the drawer under my bed?” Makoto asked, his eyes now on Haruka, who shook his head. “Then I see why you didn’t find anything,” he smiled. “Come with me after dinner,”

And so, after finishing dinner, Rei and Kisumi washed up while Haruka and Makoto went into Makoto’s room and knelt down on the floor beside his bed. Makoto pulled out a large drawer and looked through it for about half a minute before he pulled out two official looking documents.

“This should be it,” he said and handed Haruka the papers.

Haruka looked them over. They explained a lot of things. His and Rin’s names were written on each of the different papers. Their age and date of birth was written there too along with the staff member who received them on the orphanage that day, and the date of the day of course.

“This is the first legal proof I have of your existence,” Makoto said. “Both for you and Rin,”

Haruka nodded.

“When you hand it over to Matsuoka-kun, would you please tell her to be sure to hand it back to me as soon as possible?” When Haruka looked up at Makoto he got the impression that he was looking at a puppy rather than a grown man. He had to make the promise.

Haruka stood but a call from Makoto made him stop and turn around.

“Haru, you shall know that no matter what you decide on doing, if you manage to find your biological family, I’ll always support your decision,”

Haruka nodded. “Thank you, Makoto,” he said.


	30. News

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phonecalls are made and a prank that turns out to be much less innocent than it was intended, is pulled.

One and half a week had passed since Haruka had handed over the documents to Gou but she still had yet to return them. Since Makoto had told him that these documents were the first proof of his and Rin’s existence he too had been really concerned of getting them back.

Now it was Sunday yet again and Haruka had still not heard anything of the documents.

The sun was shining outside, and it wasn’t that surprising. Winter would be over in only a couple of days and spring would come.

At the moment, Haruka was drawing a picture of the old house at Iwatobi while he could hear the radio in the background. Rei had turned it on because he had claimed it was too quiet.

Kisumi had a job today, so he couldn’t be with them for a change. Haruka had almost gotten used to his presence by now. Nagisa was hanging out at Momotarou’s place as far as Haruka was concerned. It had taken him shorter than expected to recover from the flue from last week. Makoto claimed it was because of Haruka’s skills in making good tea, while Haruka believed it was just Nagisa’s immune system that had played its part.

Haruka’s phone started buzzing and he looked at the caller ID, surprised to see that it wasn’t Makoto calling him for a change. It was Gou.

“Hello, Haruka-senpai?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Haruka said, waiting for her to continue.

“Is Matsuoka-senpai anywhere nearby?” she asked.

“No,” Haruka answered.

“Can you get him and meet me by the hospital at 5?” She asked. “It’s important,”

Haruka wondered if that was possible, seeing as he and Rin hardly spoke to each other anymore. 5 o’clock was in about an hour. “I can try,” he said, thereby he won’t promise her anything.

“Thanks,” Gou said and Haruka could hear that she was smiling. “I’ll see you then,” she said before hanging up.

Haruka stared at his display for a few moments. He wondered when he had got Gou’s number. He didn’t remember asking for it. Neither did he remember her asking for his. Maybe it was Nagisa who had given Gou his number and plotted hers in his cellphone. That was very likely.

Well, it didn’t matter now. What mattered now was that Haruka needed to contact Rin and get him to meet up at the hospital too.

He went down his contact list, something he had done about once or twice all the time he had had a cellphone, and found Rin’s number. He called, and waited patiently.

He waited for a while. It managed to call around four times before someone picked up in the other end.

“This is Matsuoka Rin’s phone,” It was Sousuke’s voice.

“Yamasaki, where’s Rin?” Haruka asked.

“Not here, why?” Sousuke said, stating the more than obvious fact.

“Because I need to ask him to meet up at the hospital in half an hour,” Haruka said. “It’s important,”

“What’s so important?” Sousuke asked.

“I don’t know,” Why did this conversation get so much on Haruka’s nerves?

“It might be a bit difficult, you see Rin has gone missing in Shinjuku and I can’t find him anywhere,” Sousuke said.

Haruka nodded. “Okay…” he mumbled. “Please hurry up and do,” he said.

“I’ll try, Nanase, but I’m not gonna promise anything you know,” Sousuke said coldly. Then he hung up.

Haruka sat with his phone in hand and looked at the watch that was hanging in the kitchen. There were 50 minutes left until he was to show up at the hospital. He had a lot of time before he needed to go. It would take half an hour to get there, that much he knew.

Just then the news went on in the radio and for some reason, Haruka paid attention to what they were saying in there.

“We have an important message,” the host said. “As you may very well know, a serial killer has been haunting Tokyo for the past half year now, mostly targeting teenage boys. They are wearing a black hoodie and blue jeans. They were last seen in Shinjuku about 15 minutes ago. If you see them, don’t get involved with them. They are dangerous. Instead, contact the police,”

Haruka froze. This past half year Makoto had been really concerned about where all the four of them went. As long as they stayed in the area it was fine, though they did have a curfew. At first Rin and Rei had both claimed that Makoto was overly protective of them, and Haruka had thought so too, but now it all made sense to him. Makoto had tried to protect them against this serial killer, targeting teenage boys.

“I repeat now; there is a serial killer in Tokyo targeting teenage boys, he was last seen in Shinjuku, he is dangerous,” the host said.

Shinjuku, That’s the area where Rin went missing. At least according to Sousuke.

Haruka got up on his feet and hurried to the door. He quickly pulled on his jacket and shoes and opened the door.

“Where are you going?” Rei asked concerned.

Haruka didn’t take the time to answer. He just hurried out the door and ran down the stairs and out on the streets. He had to get to Shinjuku as fast as possible. He needed to find Rin as fast as possible, before the serial killer did, he needed to save Rin.

Haruka picked up the speed. He couldn’t lose Rin, not like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter for today. Hope you're all exited for tomorrow when the final chapters will be up.   
> I'm glad someone's reading this story here, thanks for the kudos, they're appreciated.   
> I'll see you tomorrow. 
> 
> Jackie


	31. Running

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two people are running to save someone dear to them.

Rin came back from the toilets just in time to see Sousuke put something down his back. He had really needed to pee before they left the swim club and so he had left Sousuke to watch his stuff while he was gone.

“Did someone try calling me?” Rin asked as he looked down the pocket where Sousuke had put something and found his cellphone. It was still a bit warm from the heat from Sousuke’s hand.

“Nothing important. Just Nanase,” Sousuke answered.

Rin looked at his phone while wondering why Haruka would call him out of nowhere like this. They hadn’t spoken to each other in a few months now.

Rin would admit that part of it was his fault, but Kisumi had been at the apartment so much he hadn’t really felt like going home. And now to make matters worse he had had a huge argument with Haruka about half a year ago, around the exams. Since then the only talk they had been doing was arguments, until Rin decided not to come any more than needed.

He had almost come to regret this decision when Haruka ran away from home around New Year’s. But after then it seemed that Haruka got along better with Kisumi and this bothered Rin even more. Therefore he hadn’t started talking to his twin, like he had originally planned.

“Well, we should get going,” Sousuke stood up and grabbed his own back. Rin got his own and followed Sousuke out of the swim club.

“Where should we go now?” Rin asked. “Does your mom need anything?” he asked curiously.

“Not today,” Sousuke answered. “We could just walk around for a bit if you’d like,”

“Sure,” Rin said with a happy smile. He let his cellphone slip into the pocket of his jacket as they headed down the street.

They were talking about the serial killer that had been around in Tokyo the past half a year. Unlike Makoto, Sousuke’s parents had told him about this right away and he had informed Rin of this too. Therefore Rin had been following the news about the serial killer all the time, in papers and in the radio, and whatever he could pick up from anywhere. He had never been this close to a thing like a serial killer before, when coming from a small town like Iwatobi it wasn’t exactly what you’d stumble upon every other day.

They just then passed by one of those TVs on the street, hanging far above the ground in a building. The host on the screen had a busy part of Tokyo behind him.

“I’m standing here in Shinjuku where the serial killer was last spotted,” he started off, causing Rin to stop, and grab Sousuke’s arm to make him stop as well. Rin’s crimson eyes fixated on the screen.

“Nobody has been able to find him yet but we do know he is here somewhere,”

“Him again?” Sousuke asked. He wasn’t making half as big a deal out this case as Rin was, despite serial killers weren’t really part of his everyday life either.

“Shinjuku is not that far from here, is it?” Rin asked.

“Within a 10 minutes distance by train. Why?” Sousuke looked confused at Rin. “Are you planning on going there?”

“No way!” Rin shook his head as he smiled. “I’m not insane,”

“But you sure are unusual,” Sousuke commented also smiling. “What does your calculations say that he will do today?”

Rin had taken the time to plan out a schedule of what the serial killer did and when he would appear. On a monthly basis he would appear around three times. The first would be a week before the next killing. The second would be two or three days before, and the third would be on the day of the killing.

“He appeared last weekend,” Rin said.

“Yeah, and on Wednesday this week,” Sousuke added. “What does that mean?”

Rin wasn’t paying attention to Sousuke’s following question. Something on the screen above them had caught his eye.

“I am standing here with police off-“ The TV host was cut off as a boy pushed past him, obviously in a hurry.

“Excuse me,” the boy mumbled lowly, but it was loud enough for the microphone to pick the sound up.

“Haru…,” Rin stared at the boy who had just passed by. What was Haruka doing in Shinjuku? There was no reason for him to be there anyway was there?

“What about, Nanase?” Sousuke asked, catching Rin’s attention.

“He was on TV,” Rin answered. “But what’s he doing in Shinjuku?”

The look that appeared on Sousuke’s face made Rin slightly angry. He seemed amused, but also he expressed disbelief.

“What’d you tell Haru when he called me?” Rin asked, sounding angrier than he originally intended.

Sousuke’s grin was wiped off his face in an instant. “Calm down Rin, he wanted to talk to you, but I figured it was for the better if you didn’t so I told him you got lost in Shinjuku,”

Rin stood as if he was frozen to the ground upon hearing that. If Sousuke had told Haruka this, then what would Haruka’s reaction be? If he didn’t know of the serial killer he won’t care at all. He won’t even think about it twice, seeing as how he and Rin had been acting towards each other lately. But if Haruka had heard of the serial killer and where he had last been spotted? There was no questioning it. Haruka was the type of person who would do anything to save the life of someone he holds dear, even if it meant going into a dangerous area where a serial killer had just been spotted, if he believed Rin was there and in danger.

“You bastard!” Rin yelled angrily before he took off, running with all his might to the nearest station to get the next train running to Shinjuku.

Sousuke stood still on the spot for a while. He couldn’t believe Rin’s anger. It had just been a prank, but seeing as things were escalating something needed to be done. He needed to stop Rin before he got too far into Shinjuku, but if Haruka had really gone there and became the serial killer’s next victim, Sousuke was sure Rin would never forgive him. He didn’t know what to do and therefore he ended up just standing there on the street, looking like an idiot.

* * *

 

The streets of Shinjuku were surprisingly deserted. Haruka couldn’t believe it. When he first noticed this fact he had to stop to figure out what situation it put him in. It would make it much easier to look for Rin when the streets were empty like this, but it would also make it easier for the serial killer to find one of them.

He felt bad for the guys who had been recording something a few streets back. It looked like some kind of TV. Maybe they were covering the case with the serial killer. Hopefully they won’t find a victim today.

“Rin!” Haruka called out in the deserted streets.

There was no response though. He wasn’t that lucky, and therefore he ran down another street to try and call out for Rin elsewhere.

Heavy clouds came in from west at a high speed, but Haruka didn’t notice them, he didn’t notice the rain either until it was falling heavily down from the sky.

He didn’t know how long he had been searching for Rin by now. All he knew was that he still had yet to find him.

The rain seemed cold on Haruka’s body. It was soaking right through his jacket and making his clothes all wet and cold. His hair was also wet and sticking to his face and water was running down his eyes, but he still kept on looking and searching.

“Rin!” he called again as loud as he could, but still no one answered.

A flash of lightning shot across the sky and Haruka could hear the rolling of a thunderstorm only a few seconds later. It wasn’t safe being out here. He would have to look for cover somewhere.

He turned the next corner and found a small doorway where one could just barely sit, covered from the rain. It seemed safe enough to go there, and so Haruka did.

He sat down in the corner. It wasn’t as dry as he had hoped, but it was better than nothing.

Haruka was getting tired, so he curled up into a ball and let his head rest on his knees. He let his eyes scan the street to see if he could find any sight of either Rin, or worse, the serial killer, but there was nothing but buildings and heavy rain.

Haruka then turned his face downwards and buried it in his knees. Fear and sorrow was taking over, though he refused to cry. He hadn’t cried. Not since the day when Nagisa found him in the shower, and there was no reason to start now. Not until he knew for sure what the outcome of this would be.

He let his eyes close as he listened to the rain. He knew he shouldn’t sleep. It was too cold, too wet, and a too dangerous situation for that. But he just couldn’t help it, and slowly his mind started drifting off, to a warm, dry place, where Rin was safe and sound.


	32. Safety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rin's search of Shinjuku comes to an end.

It had started raining, and Rin was soaking wet now. He didn’t know how much time he had spent on walking around in Shinjuku, looking for Haruka, but he still had yet to find him.

It hadn’t been easy getting into Shinjuku. Just after Rin had passed the TV host, a guy from the police had stopped him to ask where he was going. At first Rin had refused to stop, but then the man had grabbed his arm.

“Where are you going, kid?” he asked. “There’s a serial killer in there,”

Rin had narrowed his eyes at the guy. “Have you seen a guy, around my age, a tiny bit shorter than me, with black hair and blue eyes pass by here?” he asked.

The man looked confused at him. “No, I haven’t,” he said.

“Then don’t bother stopping me,” Rin snapped. It pissed him off that the police hadn’t noticed Haruka. It pissed him off that nobody had tried stopping him before he went into Shinjuku, cause Rin was sure, he hadn’t been stopped and had made it in, and was wondering around in there.

The thought of this could still make Rin’s anger boil up.

A lightning stroke across the sky and he could hear the thunder shortly after. He tensed up a little bit. He had gotten over most of his fear of thunder and lightning, but he still felt uneasy at those times, especially when being out in the weather. He also knew that Haruka felt uncomfortable in this kind of weather.

“Damn it all,” Rin said in a low voice. He had to find Haruka, and fast.

He got his cellphone out of his pocket and called Haruka’s number. He stood still in the rain, listening to see if he could hear anything, maybe his ears would pick up the sound of Haruka’s phone?

“The number you have dialed is currently out of service, please try again later,” a female voice said.

“Damn it all,” Rin repeated before hanging up and moving on.

Another lightning was now visible, and quickly followed by thunder. This repeated itself for a while longer, as Rin kept wondering the deserted streets of Shinjuku, looking for Haruka. So far he had no luck.

His phone buzzed and Rin looked at the display to see if it was Haruka, calling back, but found himself disappointed when he saw who it was, and then more anger rose in his chest. He refused to answer the call from Sousuke. Not until he had found Haruka.

Rin checked around every corner before heading down another street. He was aware of the serial killer and this was his way of taking caution of that. He won’t risk finding himself right in front of the serial killer because he had been careless.

Rin just happened to look down another street when something caught his eye. He didn’t quite notice it at first. It was like his gaze had just gone right over it without his brain registering it. It was only after he had pulled back and processed what he had seen that he noticed, and then he had to look around the corner to check again if he had really seen something different.

He had. In a doorway he could see a person sitting. They were curled up in a ball with their arms wrapped around their knees. Their head was covered by the shadows and the color of their hair and length of it was therefore pretty unclear, but it looked like a teen. Rin was also certain that it wasn’t the serial killer. The jacket was medium blue and not black. He walked down the street and up to the person in the doorway. Half way there he realized who it was.

“Haru!” Rin yelled before running the last few steps up to his twin and kneeling down by his side. “Haru, are you okay?” he asked.

The other teen didn’t answer his question. In fact he didn’t react at all to anything.

Rin studied Haruka’s positon. He remembered how the serial killer would leave his victims with their throat slit and in a natural position which would hide the cut from everyone else, until they moved the person. Normally they would be sitting against a wall, with their legs stretched out and their head hanging, like they were just sleeping, but who said that the thing with the legs couldn’t change?

Rin got scared. For the first time in his life he really got scared that something bad had happened. He felt his nerves shutting down. He couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t even sense the rain running down his body.

“H-Haru…” he whispered as a few tears ran down his face, mixing with the raindrops. “This is all my fault…” Rin leaned his head against Haruka’s. “I’m really sorry Haru,” A sob left Rin’s throat. “I never got to tell you that,”

He sat like this for a few moments, until he noticed that his ear had picked up a sound that shouldn’t have been there. He could hear a soft breathing, a breathing that didn’t belong to him.

Rin sat back up and looked at Haruka whose head got up as well. Sorrowful blue eyes met watery crimson ones. Haruka’s expression was as stoic as ever though.

“Haru!” Rin pulled even further back, as he landed on his butt in a puddle. “I… I thought you were dead!” he stated as his eyes trailed down to look at Haruka’s unharmed throat.

Haruka felt on his throat when he noticed Rin’s gaze and then looked back at Rin. “I’m not,” he said, stating the obvious fact.

“Why didn’t you answer when I called out to you?” Rin asked.

“I was asleep,” Haruka answered.

“Why didn’t you answer your phone?” Rin then asked.

Haruka looked at his cellphone, which was in his pocket. “It’s dead,” he mumbled. Then he looked up at Rin. “But you don’t have your phone on you?” he asked.

Rin pulled out his phone. “I do,” he answered. “Sousuke tried to pull a prank,” at least that was what he had said. “We were at the swim club when you called,”

Haruka just nodded, though Rin could tell he cursed himself for not being able to tell that.

“Don’t you know you are in a dangerous situation?” Rin then asked. “You shouldn’t have slept. You’re lucky that it was me who found you and not the serial killer,”

Haruka nodded, accepting the lecture. “I’m sorry,” he answered, not knowing what else to say, but feeling that it was required for a situation like this.

“That’s not gonna cut it,” Rin said. “You had me worry you know,”

“You had me worry,” Haruka answered.

“I wasn’t even here to begin with,” Rin said.

“Sousuke said you were here,” Haruka answered.

“How did you even know about the serial killer?” Rin asked. “I mean you don’t listen to the radio and no one bothers watching the news on TV,” He paused. “I assume it’s because of him that you went looking for me, isn’t it?”

Haruka nodded, proving Rin’s theory right. “Rei had the radio on this afternoon and I had just finished my conversation with Sousuke when I picked up the word Shinjuku,” Haruka answered.

“Damn it all,” Rin mumbled.

Then silence fell upon him and Haruka. They listened to the rain falling as they just enjoyed each other’s company, and the fact that their friendship was back. Rin started a new conversation by talking about how he had gotten much better at swimming, and how he planned on getting Haruka started on swimming again.

Haruka wasn’t paying attention. His gaze was focused on something behind Rin, but Rin didn’t notice until Haruka cut him off.

“Rin…” he said nothing more, but Rin could hear the worry in his voice. The rain had almost stopped now, and there was something about the silence it left behind that made Rin tense up as well. He heard the sound of a foot hitting the surface of a puddle and turned around to face whoever was approaching, though he couldn’t see them. They were hiding in the shadows.

“Who’s there?” Rin asked, though no one answered.

Behind him, he could hear Haruka stand up as well and he spread out his arms, protectively, covering for Haruka. He shot a glance over his shoulder at the other.

“Stay behind me,” he said.

Haruka got a look on his face, like he was about to protest, but he ended up not saying a thing and stepping back, allowing Rin to protect him.

“There’s no use in that,” The voice came from the shadows where Rin had heard the footsteps earlier. Then the serial killer stepped out, and walked closer to them. “I’m gonna kill the both of you,”

Rin’s already tense body tensed up even more and he prepared himself for a fight as he watched the serial killer carefully. He refused to lose Haruka, not when he had just found him and recovered the bond between them.


	33. Tests

The serial killer took a step closer and then another. Rin kept on watching his every single movement. He prepared for defense. He could feel Haruka’s presence behind him, warm and comforting, it made him feel confident that he could stand up for both himself and Haruka.

“Rin, breath,” Haruka whispered. He had leaned in as his lips were just beside Rin’s ear and whispered the two words, only then making Rin aware that he was holding his breath.

“I am breathing,” Rin lied and then started breathing again.

Haruka kept the smile off his face. This was so much like Rin to say, and truth be told, he had really missed Rin saying something like this.

“You’re gonna look so pretty,” The serial killer took a step closer. The smirk on his face was visible, though everything else was hidden under the shadow of the hood. If it had been Rei, Makoto or Nagisa in this situation, they would’ve freaked out because he looked so scary, but if Rin or Haruka felt frightened, they were hiding it well.

“Why is that?” Rin asked challenging.

“Your bodies will be to my full disposal, what if I made it look like you boys had just been at a heated loving moment?” he asked, the smirk only getting wider.

Rin was frozen for a moment. Why would this guy feel such a thrill about something like that?

“I wonder what makes a sadists,” Haruka mumbled in his own unique way of trying to lighten the mood. Rin followed and let a small, nervous laughter escape. Meanwhile both boys watched the man carefully.

Only one more step and he would be able to reach Rin with the knife, and none of the twins could move. They had been cornered.

“Freeze!”

All three on the street looked to the other end and saw three police officers standing there with their guns pointed towards the serial killer.

“I’m not gonna,” the sadistic serial killer said before attempting to take another step towards Rin and Haruka. If he had been just a couple of centimeters closer he could’ve cut Rin, but before he could go that far, the sound of at least three gunshots were heard through the street and the serial killer dropped to the ground, dead on the spot.

The officers then went to check on the body to make sure he really was dead, while one walked up to Rin and Haruka instead and checking on them.

“Are you boys alright?” he asked.

“We’re fine,” Rin said in an annoyed tone. “For how long have you guys been watching this?” he asked.

The officer blinked. “A couple of minutes…” he mumbled.

“How did you find us?” Haruka asked before Rin could manage to take in a deep breath to start yelling at the officer for being so careless.

“We followed the crimson eyed,” the officer said.

“Why?” Rin asked. “Why not follow Haruka?”

“We simply didn’t notice him,” the officer answered as politely as possible.

Rin got angry. “I really wonder how the police can be so careless as this. You let him slip by, and you don’t even go look for him afterwards, you just trail me around, hoping that I would stumble upon him in time. What if the serial killer had found him first?” he asked.

“Rin,” Haruka grabbed Rin’s arm, signaling for him to stop before he got too worked up about this.

“Why were you boys even heading here in the first place?” the officer asked.

Rin’s eyes got dark. “It was a mean prank,” he said.

Haruka remembered something and suddenly grabbed Rin’s wrist and pulled him along.

“Haru, where are we going?” Rin asked as he did his best to keep up with the black-haired.

“To the hospital,” Haruka answered.

“What are we gonna do there?” Rin asked at first in confusion. Then his expression changed to worry. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Haruka answered. “Matsuoka Gou is waiting for us there,” he said.

“When was that?” Rin asked.

“At 5,” Haruka answered and Rin checked his phone. They would be about an hour late and he had a missed call and a text from Nagisa. It held a number which he called, because that was what the text ordered him to do.

“Hello?” a female voice spoke in the other end. “This is Matsuoka Gou,”

“Matsuoka Rin speaking,” Rin said. “I was told to call this number,”

“Is Haruka-senpai anywhere near you?” Gou asked.

“Yeah, though his phone is out,” Rin answered. “Why are we supposed to meet up with you?” he asked.

“I’ll explain when you get there,” she answered. “Now hurry up, you’re late!” she practically yelled and then she hung up.

Rin got a move on and started picking up the speed as he was running even faster than Haruka, and now dragging him along.

* * *

 

There weren’t many people at the hospital. Only a few were waiting around. One of them was Matsuoka Gou who was reading a magazine full of muscle men when Rin and Haruka entered, both out of breath.

“Haruka-senpai! Matsuoka-senpai!” Gou waved as she lifted her head and saw the two boys by the entrance. “We’ve got another doctor booked,” she said. “He should be here soon,”

“Please, Rin is fine,” Rin said as he and Haruka sat down next to Gou, with Rin in the middle.

“Okay, Rin-senpai,” Gou answered with a smile on her face.

“Will you tell us what’s going on?” Rin asked.

“Oh yeah!” Gou’s smile grew wider. “For a while now, I have had my suspicion that the three of us were related. I lend some paper from Haruka-senpai and when my mother saw them, she demanded that we had it checked by a blood-test,” she explained. “That’s what we’re here for,”

“Do you have the papers?” Haruka asked.

Gou nodded and pulled them out of her bag. She handed them to Haruka who looked them over, glad to see nothing had happened to them.

“What’s with you?” Rin asked teasingly.

“Makoto says this is the first proof of our existence,” he answered.

“I see,” Rin nodded and watched as Haruka carefully packed away the papers.

The three of them were set in silence for a while. They watched people come and leave, doctors coming to call out a name of someone and have them follow for whatever reason. Some just made their way through the waiting area because they were done and left through the exit.

They waited around for half an hour before a doctor came over and called out their names. Gou was the only one paying attention.

“That’s us!” she said before standing up. Rin and Haruka just followed her but when they finally laid eyes on their doctor, both ended up standing still, thinking of how ironic this all was.

“Makoto!” Rin yelled surprised.

“It’s Tachibana-sensei here,” Makoto answered with a kind smile on his face. “Now follow me,” he said before leading the way down a hallway to a small office looking room where all three teens were set on chairs.

“Do you know Haruka-senpai and Rin-senpai?” Gou asked.

Makoto nodded. “I’m their foster father,” he answered. “I’m glad I can help out with this,” he said as he picked up everything he needed for the tests. “How many blood-tests was it again?” he asked.

“Three,” Gou answered quickly.

“Ladies first,” Makoto smiled and within seconds Gou had had some of her blood taken. Next up was Rin, and then Haruka. Rin was the only one to complain a bit, but it was no big deal.

“Makoto,” Rin asked, ignoring that Makoto had told him not to call him by that earlier. “Could Haru and I have determined our relation to each other by blood-tests as well?” he asked.

Makoto nodded as he packed the tests away. “You could’ve, in fact I’m sure they have taken you for that at the orphanage,” he answered. “I’ll be off in half an hour’s time, go home and order some pizza and I’ll pick it up on the way home,” he said.

“We will,” Rin smiled.

“Thanks a lot, Tachibana-sensei,” Gou said and both boys followed her example even if it seemed a little weird to do this to Makoto of all people. Then they went their separate ways, Gou went home to her mother while Rin and Haruka went home to Nagisa and Rei.


	34. Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The results of the blood-tests arrive.

Things started changing from that day forward. Rin started speaking to Haruka again, and for a while he even refused to have anything to do with Sousuke. He had gotten a membership of a swim club in the center of Tokyo because he was a really good swimmer, and so he invited Haruka to come with him all the time. These memberships were financed by the swim club, so as long as Rin performed well and did good at tournaments, he could keep his membership.

The only issue in Rin’s opinion was that Sousuke came there on a regular basis as well.

“You should start talking to Yamasaki-kun again,” Aki said to Rin on the Friday after the incident with the serial killer. “It’s not really his fault,”

Rin glared at the table where Sousuke was sitting all alone. “I’m not talking to him until he apologizes,” he said and turned away.

“He is sorry,” Aiichirou said and looked over at the other boy as well. “I think you should make up with him, Rin-senpai,”

Rin snorted, but didn’t comment on it. He looked at Haruka, hoping to find a clue of what to do in his eyes, though Haruka let nothing show. He wanted Rin to decide for himself on what he wanted to do. Though he found that Aki and Aiichirou were right. It wasn’t really Sousuke’s fault that all this had happened. He won’t forgive the tall boy himself, but he had a feeling that Rin should try to forgive him. It would be easier for him.

Rin sighed, unable to decide on what to do. “Give me time to think about this,” he said finally, and Aki and Aiichirou had to accept that.

On the following Monday Sousuke asked if he could talk to Rin privately for a few seconds and they both left the classroom. Afterwards they returned and he and Sousuke went up to Haruka and the others and Sousuke apologized to Haruka for pulling that prank. Haruka accepted the apology.

Now sometimes Rin would spend time with Sousuke and other times he would be with Haruka. Though he wasn’t as much with Sousuke as before and spend more time at home, also with Nagisa and Rei.

A week after Sousuke and Rin made up, a letter came to Makoto’s apartment and Haruka just happened to be the first to find it. He went to the kitchen where Rin was reading a manga while Nagisa was stuffing his face with strawberries and Rei was doing some mathematic things for fun.

“What’s that Haru-chan?” Nagisa asked as he saw the letter. “Who is it for?”

“It’s addressed to Rin and me,” Haruka said, causing Rin to look up from the manga and look at the letter.

“Do you know what it says?” he asked stupidly.

“No,” Haruka said, showing that the letter hadn’t been opened yet, and so Rin took it and opened it before Haruka could think to stop him.

“Haru…” he said after taking a few seconds to look over the letter. “It’s the results of the blood-tests,” he said. “We are related to Gou,”

It only took them seconds after that to get their shoes and jackets on and hurry out the apartment to go to Gou’s place and tell her the news. She had told them her address before they had parted ways outside the hospital and Rin had it on his phone now, leading the way to her home.

He was surprised to see it was the little fishing shop that he had bought fish at with Sousuke a couple of times now.

They entered and the woman behind the desk looked at them.

“Where is Yamasaki-kun?” she asked.

“We don’t speak to each other as much anymore,” Rin answered. “We came here to see Matsuoka Gou,”

“She’s in the apartment,” the woman answered. “Just come on behind here,” she led them behind the desk and to the back where a set of stairs let up to the apartment that she and Gou shared.

The door was torn open before the woman had the time to reach out for the handle and Gou stood there with an excited expression on her face. “Mom!” she yelled, and then laid eyes on Rin and Haruka. “You got the letter too?” she asked.

Haruka nodded and Rin smiled. “Of course we did,” he said.

“Come in!” Gou cheered and led the way inside. “You too mom, this is important!”

Rin, Haruka and Gou’s mother entered the apartment and Gou came running up to them and handed her mother a letter, similar to the one Rin and Haruka had got.

“I understand,” Gou’s mother said. “Boys, I assume I should give you some answers as to why you don’t live here,” she said before leading the way into the living room. “Gou, could you prepare some tea and come on sit with us?” she asked.

“Yes,” Gou answered before hurrying out to prepare tea. Rin and Haruka followed her mother, both feeling awkward about the situation. Things were going way too fast for any of their liking.

The boys were set in the couch and Gou’s mother and Gou sat in chairs in front of them.

“I met a man about 18 years ago,” Gou’s mother started as she held a cup of tea between her hands. Haruka and Rin held their cups too. “He was nice and beautiful looking. He was working as a fisherman, but had once had a dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer. We were young and in love, and before I knew it, we lived together up here and I was pregnant,” she took a sip of the tea before continuing.

* * *

 

She gave birth to a set of twin boys on April 18th. One of them had maroon hair and red eyes while the other had black hair and blue eyes.

“Aren’t they adorable?” she asked her boyfriend with a smile on her face as she looked up at him. She held both twins in her arms.

Her boyfriend sent his family an admiring look. Then he nodded. “They do look like some sweet boys. I have no doubt they will become someone we can be proud of someday,” he said.

The four of them lived happily together for about half a year. The couple took their babies with them on a small sightseeing trip in the south of Japan. This was where the photo Gou had found was taken. But the peace didn’t last forever. The time soon came when the couple couldn’t just call them by Aka and Ao anymore (Red and Blue)

“What would we call them?” she asked while holding ‘red’ close to her chest.

Her boyfriend held ‘blue’ while having a thoughtful look on his face. “Don’t know… But Aka and Ao really aren’t working well,”

“Yes, we did agree they were temporary,” she said. “There are those two main characters of the manga I read as a young girl,” she said with a thoughtful smile on her face. “Rin and Haruka were their names,”

“Aren’t they a bit girly though?” he asked her while looking down at the boys. “You have to remember we got sons,”

“Well yeah, but you said your grandfather’s name was Rin, and my first boyfriend’s name was Haruka, that’s proof it’s not just names for girls,” she argued.

Her boyfriend nodded. “I also do like the meaning of both names if we use this and this kanji,” he wrote the kanji down for the names. His girlfriend nodded at this with a smile. They had easily agreed on their first names.

“But who is who?” She asked then.

“You hold Rin, I sit with Haruka,” he informed her. This she also agreed on and they fell silent for a while.

“What about their surnames though?” she asked.

“I think that’s easy too. You hold your kid, I hold mine,” he said. “So yours is Matsuoka Rin, and mine is Nanase Haruka,”

“What do you mean ‘yours and mine’?” she asked in confusion. “I thought we shared both of them equally. We are both their mother and father and have even responsibility towards both of them,”

Her boyfriend shook his head. “That’s where you’re wrong. I want to make sure I actually have a child of my own. That’s why I need one. Just be happy you got the older twin,”

He stood up in an attempt to leave but his girlfriend reached out and before anyone could react she had pulled Haruka close to her and hugged both boys like her life depended on it.

Her boyfriend didn’t say a word. He just marched out the apartment and slammed the door. She didn’t see more of him until around dinner time.

That same night she woke up in the bed and noticed that her boyfriend was missing next to her. She shrugged it off. He was probably just in the bathroom or something. She wanted to know what had awoken her though and she got out of bed to check if one of her sons were upset or something. She looked down in the small baby bed which they shared and noticed that only Rin was there. His eyes were full of tears and he looked like he was about to cry. It didn’t take long for his mother to figure out what was going on.

She ran to the entrée and there she saw her boyfriend pulling on a jacket and her missing son sitting in a baby lift, moving around with a look of discomfort on his face. He too was wide awake.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked.

“Taking what is rightfully mine,” he said while having his back turned on her.

She grabbed the baby lift with Haruka in it and freed him. Then she pulled him close to her again. “Get the hell out of my house!” She exclaimed. “I don’t ever want to see you near my boys again!”

She never did see him again afterwards. He never returned to their home after leaving the house that night. All she had to do was throw his belongings out. Her friends among the other fishermen would make sure to keep him away from there.


	35. Orphans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> About how Haruka and Rin ended up at the orphanage. A continuation of their story.

Upon hearing this story both Rin and Haruka turned to each other to exchange looks. It seemed somewhat ridiculous to both of them. It sounded like a part of a romantic drama, but somehow they still believed the story. After all they did have different surnames, and where else would the name Nanase come from?

Rin then turned to look at Gou’s – their – mother. “This still doesn’t explain how we ended up in the orphanage,” he said.

The woman nodded before continuing the story.

* * *

 

She and one of her friends had gone to register both Rin and Haruka as her rightful sons. Of course she had the intention of giving both her sons the same surname as her, Matsuoka. However…

“I’m sorry ma’am, but actually both boys appear to already have been registered in our system. However one of them has a different name than the one you request,” the man in charge informed her.

“Who is it and what name have they got?” she asked with a slight hint of frustration in her voice.

“Haruka-kun. He has been named Nanase Haruka. There is no problem with Matsuoka Rin though, that is al correct,” the man smiled kindly, unaware that he had just shattered her world.

It appeared what he had gone out to do that day was to register both their sons in the system and make sure that Haruka would actually be his son. A name change was expensive, and it was certainly nothing she could afford. Therefore it was impossible for her to change Haruka’s surname to Matsuoka even if it was all she wanted.

Around a month later she discovered that she was pregnant once again. It wasn’t easy to take care of Rin and Haruka who were now 7 months old and craving more and more attention for each passing day. On top of that, she was now earning money on her own as a single parent and when the bill from this month came it had been a shock to her. She was having some huge financial trouble now with barely any money left for herself. How would she be able to afford having another child? Even keeping the shop was getting expensive.

“I say you send one of your kids on the nearest orphanage,” her best friend told her one afternoon when she asked for her advice about the problem.

“But I can’t, Both Rin and Haruka are dear to me and they need each other, and I don’t want to send the third one just like that,” she said.

“Then send both the twins to some orphanage. Thereby they won’t be alone and you can take care of the third one, after all, two children are more expensive than one,” her friend stated.

She had to agree. She could see no other way out, but she had to make sure that Rin’s and Haruka’s father never got his hands on them. Therefore she searched for any orphanage that was as far away as possible. It took a long time but finally she found one in Iwatobi.

She headed inside the orphanage, holding both her baby boys close to her. A staff member quickly approached her with a kind smile on her face.

“What may I do for you, miss?” she asked.

“I want to leave these two boys on this orphanage,” she said to the staff member.

“For what reasons?” The staff member asked.

“I’m pregnant with my third child and since I became a single parent I haven’t been able to afford taking care of these two. So to ensure they have a better life, I have to let them go,”

Rin and Haruka, who were barely one year old, exchanged looks. They didn’t understand a word of what their mother was saying, but they could sense that she didn’t want to do what she was about to do. Therefore they started to worry a bit.

“I see,” the staff member said. “Follow me please,” she said and she followed the staff member to a room where she was asked to fill out a couple of documents. She had to write the names of both the boys, their date of birth and how old they were by now. A stray tear fell down her face as she finished the last paper.

“That should be all,” she said.

“Thank you, Miss,” the staff member said.

She handed over her sons to the staff member and took one last look at her boys, preparing for the fact that she would most likely never see them again. “Please…” She trailed off, a lump was stuck in her throat. “Please take good care of them,” she said.

“We will,” the staff member promised. “They’ll be in great hands, and I’m sure they’ll be adopted into a very nice family someday,”

If that was what made an orphan the happiest then she hoped so too.

Not long after this happened, she gave birth to her third child. This time it was a small girl who looked similar to Rin, thank Goodness. Rin looked similar to her too, almost like her spitting image, while Haruka was the spitting image of their father, unfortunately. A couple of years passed and she adjusted to only living with herself and Gou. She managed to reestablish her economy, but the thought of how her boys were doing and where they were would always be in the back of her mind. Even if she never told Gou about them, she knew that she certainly won’t ever forget her first born sons.

* * *

 

Rin and Haruka both nodded. Now they finally understood everything that had happened back then and why things were like they were now.

“Now if possible, I’d like to talk to your foster father,” she said.

“About what?” Haruka asked.

“We need to agree on what you two are going to do since you now know your biological family you get a lot of options that can change your lives,” She said.

Rin checked his phone. “He’s at work right now, in fact he is only seeing friends on Sundays unless it’s his childhood friend,” Rin explained.

“I see,” she said. “You know, give me his phone number and I’ll tell him by that,” she said.

Haruka wrote down Makoto’s phone number, along with his full name before handing it over to the woman in front of him.

Shortly after this, Rin and Haruka went home. Both of them felt really weird finding their biological mother, knowing where they came from and why they didn’t share the same surname. It was relieving, but also a strange change that it would take time to adjust to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, this and the previous chapter was one, but at the last minute I decided it was too long and cut it in two. I hope it's not that easy to tell.


	36. Dreamers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How it all ended, and Rin's and Haruka's discussion of their future plans.

It was way past the cherry blossom now. Haruka and Rin had graduated from middle school, same for Aki, Aiichirou and Sousuke. All of them were not attending school in the high school building. They weren’t all in the same classes, but those who were in different classes took their time to see their friends from middle school. Rin and Haruka were still in the same class though.

At home things hadn’t really changed that much. Rin and Haruka had both agreed that they would stay with Makoto instead of moving in with their biological family, because no matter what, they would always feel more at home with the Tachibana family than any other family.

Today was a special day. Kisumi had made an offer a while ago about having Makoto and everyone else move in at his apartment, which was a huge one with way more space than he could ever take up. There were even three extra bedrooms.

Because Kisumi’s job as a model was bringing in so much money it meant that Makoto could spend less time at work and still earn for a living, and thereby could spend more time with his family instead. This had been the main reason why Kisumi had suggested this in the first place.

At first Makoto had declined it. “I can’t let you do that to us, it’s way too much and I’m not sure I can give you anything in return,” he had said.

“Cut it out, Makoto,” Kisumi had then laughed a bit before continuing because this was really characteristic for Makoto to say. “If your boys just keep the place clean and make me food, that’s all the payment I need, I don’t have time for that myself,”

Makoto had refused again, claiming that he couldn’t just let the adopted boys do all that on their own, but then Kisumi had suggested that he helped out too and they made it a family-thing, and then it had been a bit easier for Makoto to agree on. Plus, he would pay his part of the bills too.

Today Rin, Haruka, Rei and Nagisa were going to Kisumi’s place for the very first time. Makoto had taken the week off at work and so had Kisumi as they could pack up everything at Makoto’s current apartment and prepare to move as soon as possible. Today, the plan was that the teens would clean up the unused rooms, and then they would have dinner at Kisumi’s place as well. Kisumi had already demanded the dinner was his treat, so none of the Tachibana family had to have anything to do with the food.

“Aren’t you excited to moving in at Kisumi’s place, Haru?” Rin asked as he and Haruka exited the school building to go to that place.

“Not really,” Haruka answered, staring straight forward. He would rather see what the place looked like, before deciding if he should be excited or not. Until he knew what he was dealing with, it wasn’t worth getting all worked up about it.

“Rin-chan! Haru-chan!” Nagisa yelled “Wait up!”

Rin looked over his shoulder to see Nagisa and Rei running up to them as fast as possible. Both Rin and Haruka slowed down a bit, to make the other two able to catch up.

They walked to Kisumi’s apartment, following the GPS on Rei’s phone. It took a little while getting there, but it was still less than half an hour and this was despite the fact that Rei’s GPS led them in the wrong direction for a few minutes before they figured it out.

Kisumi was waiting for them outside the apartment and led them in.

“You boys have the place to yourselves for the afternoon, you know what needs to be done. Makoto and I will be over by 6 and we’ll bring along some dinner,” he said.

“What rooms do we need to clean exactly?” Rei asked to make sure they didn’t do too much or too little.

“Those three bedrooms by the end of the hallway, and the bathroom,” Kisumi pointed all of the rooms out to them. “Well, I’ll be off,” he said and left the place.

Figuring that three bedrooms and a bathroom was just a room for each, they split evenly. Haruka got the bathroom, on Rin’s suggestion, while each of the others took a bedroom.

Haruka grabbed everything he would need to clean the bathroom and then slowly made his way down the hallway, wondering what he would find down there. Rin had taken a quick look in there and only after that suggested that Haruka cleaned it up. Was it because it was exceptionally dirty? Haruka wondered.

He reached the door and used his elbow to open it because his hands were full of other things that he didn’t really feel the need to put down yet.

The sight that met him when he entered the bathroom was as far from what he had expected as anything. It wasn’t particularly dirty, yet he could clearly see the reason why Rin had wanted him to clean it up. By the wall furthest away from the door, was a huge bathtub. It was even bigger than the one they had had at the house in Iwatobi.

Haruka felt a small smile creep across his face as he started cleaning the bathroom. He knew he didn’t need to tell anyone about the happiness he felt when he had seen the bathtub. He was pretty sure all of them knew of that already.

* * *

 

All of them had finished cleaning around the same time, but Haruka still had to check all the bedrooms to see if the others had done OK. It was something that both Rei and Rin had insisted on. Nagisa went to check out everything, and by everything I mean that he even tried to open a locked drawer, by using a hairpin that was randomly lying around. Fortunately for Kisumi’s privacy, Rei found out in time to stop Nagisa before he managed to open the drawer.

Makoto and Kisumi came back carrying five pizzas, a couple of mackerel that had already been grilled, and a white box, holding what Nagisa guessed was a birthday cake.

“Oh yeah, I forgot,” Rin said, smiling sheepishly at Haruka. “It’s our birthday today,”

Haruka nodded. In truth, he had forgotten too.

“Well, Mrs. Matsuoka and Gou remembered,” Makoto said. “She asked me to stop by on my way home and so I did, she had bought the cake for you two, and there are also some presents for you in my bag,”

Rin smiled at Haruka, who didn’t express anything.

“May I go get them, please!” Nagisa begged, and Makoto had no choice but to allow Nagisa to get the presents.

They sat down and had dinner together. Haruka had the mackerel and everyone else had pizza. They had the cake for decert, and then Rin and Haruka opened their presents. Both held a silver chain with a small charm. Rin’s was in red, and Haruka’s in blue, aside from that they were identical.

After they left the table, Makoto and Kisumi went to wash up, Nagisa dragged Rei along for more exploring and Rin and Haruka stayed by the table in silence.

“Haru,” Rin said. “I know it’s early, considering we just started our first year at high school, but what are your plans for the future?” he asked.

Haruka thought about it. “None,” he said.

Rin nodded. “I figured, well if you still have nothing in about three years, maybe you should consider joining me. I plan on going to Australia to train. I want to become an Olympic swimmer someday,” he said with a faraway look on his face, like he was having a nice dream.

Haruka nodded. “Is Sousuke coming?” he asked.

“Maybe… His shoulder has been troubling him a lot lately. If that keeps up, he might figure out something else to do,”

Haruka nodded. “I’ll think about it,” he said. Thereby he didn’t promise anything.

The two fell silent for a while, listening to Nagisa’s cheerful blabbering and Rei’s loud complains of being dragged around.

“It’s just…” Rin started out of nowhere and Haruka took time catching on that they were still on the same topic. “It’s just… that I can’t picture myself swimming without you,” Rin said.

Haruka wondered where this came from, when Rin had been swimming without him for six months.

“Stop looking at me like that!” Rin yelled as he caught Haruka’s eyes. “I know I swam without you for six months, but it just… It didn’t feel the same, it didn’t give me the same thrill that it usually does.”

Haruka nodded. He couldn’t exactly understand what Rin meant, because Rin was the only one who had ever demanded to race him. He was also the only one he had ever minded racing.

“My future dream, is to stand with you by my side, at the Olympics,” Rin said, smiling at Haruka.

Haruka pictured that. It came to him surprisingly easy. “I guess that doesn’t sound so bad,” he said, and he returned the smile at Rin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's over. This is the last chapter of this story. The next story will be up on Saturday next week (the 16th). I hope you enjoyed it.   
> I know that Rin's and Haruka's birthdays are on different dates (of course, they are not really twins) so I calculated a bit and came up with 18th of April. It is only a little after the time of the cherry blossom.   
> I should stop talking. I'm pretty sure there aren't many people who cares anyway. So I will say goodbye for now, thanks for reading and I'll see you next week. 
> 
> Jackie

**Author's Note:**

> I have written a sequal for this story that I plan to publish both here and on Fanfiction.net where this one is already completed. I thought it would be a good idea to publish the first story here too, in the hopes that this series will be just as successful here. I know I have made a few mistakes in the story, I'm sorry about that. I hope you enjoy reading this (not so) little story of mine. 
> 
> Jackie  
> PS. I might not update it all in one go as I originally intended. Nobody told me that copy-paste is a terrible idea here... Reading through it all and hitting enter over and over, is not exactly fun.


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